


When the Ocean Calls

by AcrylicMist



Category: Homestuck
Genre: All The Ships, Au-Mermaid, Boys In Love, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, EVERYONE - Freeform, Fluff, Gore, Guns, Islands, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Literally everyone - Freeform, Magic, Mermaidstuck, Multi, Murder, Other, SO MUCH FLUFF, Sadness, Sirens, Vacation, Violence, Weird Plot Shit, there will be tags added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-01-23 03:50:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 16
Words: 76,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18541678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcrylicMist/pseuds/AcrylicMist
Summary: Karkat thought this summer vacation with John would be a chance to get away from it all.Dave thought that this new island would provide a safe home for his family.Funny things happen when the two of them meet.





	1. Act One, Part one, Chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't going to post this yet but I read the epilogue and was SO ANGRY that I had to post this first chapter immediately. 
> 
> Here we go! This is the most ambitious project I've ever attempted and I'm at last ready to light this candle and watch it all burn to the ground.

**`Dave`**

The boundary between sea and sky was blurred, both boundaries black as ink. The only way to tell where one ended and the other began was to break the surface and find no water left to swim through.

There were stars though, bright pinpricks of light with no interference from the shore to overrun them. The shadows of the Pacific were remote and desolate enough that out here the stars shone uninhibited.   
Dave turned to the shore. Normally he would never risk coming so close to the back of the bay, but with no moon he felt safe and sneaky enough to risk the shallower waters. The subtle glow of magic crept across crimson scales and sleek skin as the siren twisted through the water.

He scavenged beneath the loom and lurk of the ruins and kept a watchful eye on the dark trees. This island was small, but there were still people on it. There was still the need to keep quiet and unseen. People were danger.

Dave carefully swam closer to the rocky tide pools, his tail cutting silently through the calm water. The bay was sheltered and the water still, its edge guarded by rocky outcroppings choked in wide-leafed floaters that strangled whatever surf made it past the crashing waves of the reef.

The ruins in the center of the bay drew him closer, five crumbling towers surrounding a central monument. Everything was slick stone and seaweed. Dave had never seen anything like it before. In the years that had passed since he’d last seen the monoliths, nothing had changed. The stone was untouched by time or wave, dark and mysterious.

The ocean bay was dark and calm, but Dave’s red eyes could see in the dark just fine. The faint starlight illuminated the bay down to the shallow sea floor, painting the white sand silver. 

From here Dave could just make out the lights from the house on the hill, made small and dim by distance. He and his siblings hadn’t been at this island for long, just a few days, and they were still busy exploring their new surroundings and learning the dangers of these waters, the places the rough current drug and slammed swimmers against the reef, learned where the dock and its boats sat moored on the other side of the island, hopefully unused. 

But the bay was nice. The bay was sheltered and secluded and full of ocean life, its center a deep and clear blue. It was far better than other places he’d lived in recently, and the lurk and loom of the monoliths drew his gaze. 

It was late enough at night that the boat came as a surprise. Dave was not naturally a cautious thing. He had been taught to hide and observe and stay away, but he was also a creature made curious for want of knowing. The boat wasn’t close. The faint buzz and hum of its motor humming against his scales must be coming from the other side of the island, from where the people were. 

He flicked his tail, crimson scales flashing even with the darkness around him as he propelled himself out of the bay and up the coast. Dirk was probably awake and on his way there already. Neither of them could stay away if there was danger nearby, and if the people here liked to enjoy a spot of night fishing then Dave needed to know about it for Rose and Roxy’s sake. 

He found the boat easily. It was no small fishing vessel, but he’d seen other ships that would dwarf the craft with ease. He swam closer after confirming that they weren’t dragging trawling lines behind them. The last thing he needed was to get netted with hooks.

The boat came from the open ocean and trudged onward towards the island. He kept below the boat, hiding in its shadow even in the darkness as he waited on his brother to appear. Dave was no stranger to boats, or men. Boats, he was fine with. They were silly things that floated high and harmless and cut the water choppy with their propellers that made it impossible for one to ever sneak up on any siren. The men who controlled them were an altogether different thing.

He swam higher with a flick of his fins, till he was directly beneath the boat. It wasn’t that large a thing, and the seafloor was rapidly rising up to meet the shore as the engine cut off. The boat drifted under its momentum to where the dock reached out with its long and skinny wooden legs into the sea. The water was barely forty feet deep here, and it only grew shallower the closer to shore the dock sprawled. 

Without the engine on he could hear things, voices that weren’t from his brother or sisters. Dave lounged hidden beneath them and turned a curious ear up, wondering what the fuck these humans thought they were doing.  
…

**`Karkat`**

“Oh thank Jesus,” Karkat moaned, clutching at the boat’s railing as at last land came into sight. The deck rolled beneath his feet and his stomach heaved again as he gagged down more bile. He was going to kill Jade for convincing him to come on this summer vacation to the middle of absolute buttfuck nowhere.

A spotlight turned on from the shore and illuminated the end of a long wooden pier. Up the hill he could see lights from her house. He felt the miraculous shift as the boat began to slow and his sickness began to slack off.

“Are you feeling any better?” John asked cautiously, his friend’s figure nothing but a smudge of black and blue in the corner of his vision. “We’re nearly there.”

Karkat scowled at John. “I think I’m going to be sick,” he grumbled, holding onto the railing for dear life.

The door to the deck opened and two more people came out to gaze at the island. “I’ve never seen a volcano before,” Kanaya mused thoughtfully. “It is truly beautiful.”

At night the thing looked like any other pile of rocks in mountain shape. Karkat wasn’t impressed. He was much more interested in keeping his focus on the inch of steel under his eyes. Any time he looked away the world started to spin.

Karkat spat angrily over the side of the boat. His hair was a tangled a mess and his face was sweaty and disgusting. He felt miserable in a windswept and waterlogged way. He was never going on a boat again. The ocean was a terrible thing.

“JOOOOOOOOOHN!” A high-pitched voice yelled out gleefully, and Karkat risked picking his head up to see someone running full-speed down the dock. Oh hell. Here she comes. 

“JAAAAAADE!” John yelled back, waving a hand recklessly above his head. “We made it!”

The boat slowed even more, and the engine cut off as it drifted into place beside the dock. There was an unpleasant lurch as it hit the wooden poles and rebounded back and Karkat resumed clutching at the rails. Jade threw a rope aboard and a crew hand tied them to the dock. A plank was lowered. They had finally arrived. 

“Oh my God I can’t believe you’re here!” Jade squealed and threw herself onto the ship in a rush of black hair and blue skirts that promptly crashed into John with reckless enthusiasm.

“Sorry we’re so late,” John said, laughing as his cousin hugged him. “The boat got lost.”

“I was getting so worried,” Jade fretted, “You were supposed to arrive at noon.”

Karkat drew in a deep breath and forced his fingers to release the iron at his side. He took a cautious step, and when the boat didn’t rock under him he picked his way over to where the Maryams were gathering up luggage. He couldn’t wait to get solid land under him again. He’d had enough ocean for a lifetime. His belly was a bag of deflated nausea and the back of his throat tasted sour. Seasickness fucking sucked.

A dog barked and Jade’s furry white devil beast of a mutt reached the end of the dock, her grandfather coming up behind it while a sturdy-looking teen in cargo shorts followed with a smile every bit as wide as Jade’s.

“It’s good to see you all,” the old man called out, leaning on a cane he clearly didn’t need. “Let’s get you inside before this night air gives everybody a case of the willies. Was the trip nice?”

“It was very pleasurable,” Porrim Maryam straightened up and stepped off of the boat to shake the man’s hand. “I thank you for allowing us to accompany John.”

Jake made to separate his sister from John before she crushed her cousin with the force of her excitement. Karkat could feel a headache setting in between his temples. It had been a long day.

“Boy, I’d say you look a little green in the face,” Grandpa Harley commented cheerfully as he slapped a hand across Karkat’s shoulder. “Sea been treating you well, I hope.”

Karkat forced himself to be nice. This was the man that let him join John on his visit to see his cousins and spared him a summer spent locked in and bored out of his mind with his custodian in their small three room apartment. Karkat made himself not scowl, but the words still came out as a grumble. “No, the sea did not treat me well. In fact, I think I left most of my intestines back there in the Pacific somewhere a few hours ago.”

The man let out a booming laugh. At close quarters it was a percussive assault to Karkat’s ears, still upset from the sea and with zero-equilibrium between the two of them. He threw up over the railing again.

“Ah, you’ll get your sea legs soon, Karkat,” Jake called out as he scooped up Mrs. Porrim’s bags. “You’ll adjust quickly now that you’re out here.” He stood smiling as Kanaya offered to help him carry the luggage. He had stacked bags all along his arms and seemed determined to carry them all across at once. He waved away Kanaya’s hands. “Naw, I’m bloody alright, good dame. This is brilliant! I’m so glad you’re all here for the summer.” 

“Jake! Jake, this is going to be so awesome!” John said, jumping up and down as Karkat began to regret every major life decision that could have led him to this point. This vacation was going to be the death of him.

Jade began to cackle at a pitch to make Terezi jealous and Karkat revised his last thought. That was- if he didn’t kill one of them first.  
…

**~Dave~**

Dave listened closely to the odd exchange and watched them unload baggage from the strange boat. More humans were moving in. He let the current drift him closer, confident that the dark water and shadow would shield him as long as he didn’t break the surface. Humans were an unobservant species. They only looked for what they could already see, and as long as Dave kept out of the light he would be invisible to their eyes. 

There was one human left to cling to the side railing, looking profoundly miserable. The fabric all humans wore across their chests was large enough to swallow him as he hunched himself into a smaller bundle. He looked a little like a drenched seagull with his hair going in every direction like that.

There were other, louder, more active and therefore interesting humans to watch, but Dave’s gaze kept coming back to the boy with the overlarge sleeves and the pissed-off look permanently glued to his features. It was magnetic. He found himself fascinated as he watched the boy interact with the others. He counted a total of two adults and five teens about his age. There were a few more men on board, but Dave didn’t think they were staying on the island for much longer. 

The boy lurched seaward and threw up over the railing, choking on bile. Dave felt a surge of sympathy for the sick human. In this state it was hard imagine him as a danger. He looked ridiculous and pitiable, so far out of his element. 

The boy wiped his mouth with the back of a hand and with a lurch met Dave’s shocked eyes.

The siren hadn’t realized just how close he’d gotten and froze as the boy squinted, not quite able to make out where the siren lurked beyond the light. Dave’s heart felt like he’d set his hand against an electric eel. His blood sang. His core ached with a battered recognition though he could have sworn he’d never seen any of these humans before. A scrap of song swelled up in Dave’s throat, something deep and mysterious and compelling, but he hastily choked it back down, sealing his lips firmly against the magic.

When Dave realized that he hadn’t been seen the strange energy began to reluctantly fade, but it left him buzzing and alert. He couldn’t look away.

A strong pair of hands seized him firmly around the thinnest part of his tail and yanked. Dave reflexively slapped the attacker upside the head with his tail and reared around with his hands in claws. Dirk shot him an angry look and glanced upwards to the boat. His brother’s orange eyes glowed faintly in the gloom.

“It took you long enough,” Dave whispered, lowering his arms. “You’ve missed all the good parts.”

His brother raised one pale eyebrow. “You mean the part where you were nearly seen?”

“Hell no,” Dave was quick to defend himself. “I meant the part where that one guy was hacking up his stomach. Nasty shit. I don’t think the sea agrees with him.”

“Serves him right,” Dirk whispered back, studying the underside of the boat. “Why are they here?”

“Summer vacation,” Dave answered, glad to share the dirty details. “An adult and three teens.”

Dirk said nothing as the group retreated down the dock and onto dry land. He only watched them with eyes that looked far older than they should have been.

“Hey,” Dave whispered, louder now that the humans had left, “it’s not as bad as it seems.” He turned back towards the bay, purposefully rolling onto his back in a lazy drift of fins to check and see if Dirk would follow him. “It could be worse.”

“It might just be a small family,” his brother answered, “but they’re still a threat.”

“They’ll be an entire island away,” Dave waved away Dirk’s concern. “There’s no reason for them to bother us.”

Dirk still didn’t look pleased. Dave could see his brother’s thoughts schooling around in his head like silver fish. He bumped the end of his tail fin against bright orange scales. “I’ll race you back,” he offered, twisting through the water with ease. “Loser gets stuck gathering oysters.”

Dave shot off before Dirk could answer. His gills opened wide, taking in cool ocean water through the three slits along his sides where they nestled snugly between his ribs as he drove himself faster. His brother was fast, but with a head start Dave might have had half a chance. He lost himself in the muscular sweep of fins as they tore back to the bay as streaks of red and orange scales with pale hair.

Dave didn’t mention what had happened when he met the stranger’s eyes. He didn’t say anything about the slow smolder he still felt in his core. He forced himself to ignore the unshakable urge to see the human again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no its here
> 
> .... Chapter two

~Dave~

Dave was stuck gathering oysters and he had no one but himself to blame. It was boring work, but at least the little bastards were fairly delicious. But hey, the menial labor was worth it for the chance to pull Dirk out of his own head for a few minutes.

He’d predictably lost the race the night before, but that’s what Dave got for betting that he could beat his brother. Dirk was fast, much faster than him even when Dave tried his best to swim as speedily as possible. Dirk made his speed look effortless and Dave had been gasping water by the time they’d made it back to the bay. 

Dave pried another shellfish out of the cleft in the stones near the center of the ruins. The little bastards liked to hide themselves in the crannies, and his fingers were scraped and scuffed from twisting them out and popping off barnacles. While he worked at gathering dinner his mind kept drifting to that one boy from the boat. He couldn’t place any relevance on simple curiosity; he’d seen lots of humans before, and he couldn’t imagine the teen presenting any real threat when he could barely stay upright on the scrawny stick legs all his kind possessed. 

All the same, Dave kept flashing back to that instant when, just for a moment, he thought he’d been seen by those brown eyes. A thrill ran through him at the thought. 

He caught a flash of lavender and fuchsia, a quick brush of current against his scales, and then Rose and Roxy were there.

“How’s it going?” His younger sister batted her eyes at him hopefully, then dove in in a swirl of pink scales and snatched an oyster from the top of the pile he’d so carefully assembled. 

He said nothing, but took up his knife and opened one himself. He held it out to Rose with a wink. “You might as well have one too. There’s plenty here.”

“I’m glad to see you enjoying yourself,” Rose said, taking the offered snack. Her eyes held that crinkle between them they always had when she was worried but trying to hide it. “Have you seen Dirk lately?”

Dave shrugged wordlessly. “Not since he took off this morning.”

“Damn,” Roxy sighed. “Those humans moving in have him all jumpy.”

“They have me worried as well,” Rose admitted. “This was supposed to be the one place where we could be free of them.”

Dave felt his teeth grind together. “They’re on the other side of the island,” he said slowly, “They won’t come all the way out here and bother us.” There was a small part of him that wished for them to come poking around and give him the chance to see that one boy again, but that was a dangerous thought. He shut it out and buried it deep. He couldn’t afford to dwell on the impossible.

“But you can’t say you’re not curious,” Roxy said, working to open a second oyster with the ends of her claws, “I’d like to run into them myself actually. I’ve been dying to practice my singing,” She said, raising her eyebrows suggestively. That won a small grin out of Rose.

“There are more less compromising ways to practice spellsinging,” Rose answered, raising up elegantly in the water. Her hair was shorter than most girls, siren or not. It hung pale and fine at her chin even while submerged. “Ways that would not draw undo attention to our presence.” 

“Please,” Dave scoffed, “The two of you would probably drown any poor fool that wandered by just to see if you could.”

“Well maybe we wouldn’t,” Roxy defended herself. “We won’t mean to kill anyone.”

The very idea of singing made Dave severely uncomfortable. He had to ask, “please don’t go singing at anyone. You’d probably accomplish nothing except melting their brain out through their ears.”

“Ew,” Roxy scrunched up her face at the thought of melted brains. “That’s disgusting.”

His sister’s blatant disgust at the idea was a little comforting. Dave didn’t know why he felt so suddenly protective of the humans on the island, and he tried to forget the face with the brown eyes and dark, wavy hair that had looked so soft.

Dave felt his brother against his scales long before the other siren became visible. He waited for Dirk to catch up to them before offering him the spoils of his win, grinning with relief.

“Where you guys talking about singing?” Dirk asked. 

“Yes!” Roxy answered, concentrating on prying open her next oyster. 

Dirk’s expression was neutral as he considered the girls, then Dave. 

“And you, Dave?” Dirk asked. 

It felt like an accusion. “Why the sudden interest?” Dave shot back, his skin crawling with unease as he tried to hide his discomfort. Just last night he’d nearly choked on a wild magic that snuck its way up the back of his throat. Had Dirk experienced the same? 

His brother shrugged one shoulder nonchalantly, but his bright eyes were still keen and interested.

“I was just asking if you thought you could sing them out to sea,” Dirk said calmly as Dave gaped at him. 

“So what if I could?” Dave snapped. “Rose or Roxy could get them to kill themselves if that’s what you’re after.”

“I’m just trying to get ahold of all our options,” Dirk lashed back calmly. “You’re the best singer I know of. I’m just trying to see if there’s any other random-ass talents you’re hiding.”

Dave wasn’t the best singer they knew of. Not even by a long shot. But their dad wasn’t exactly around anymore to claim his title.

“I don’t know,” Dave said, his sarcasm scathing. “I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of things I can do. I’m very skilled in the art of go fuck yourself.” He didn’t know why he was feeling so hostile- he’d never been seriously angry at Dirk before, but now he was feeling like he was. 

“Dave, he’s only trying to help,” Rose scolded. She brushed back her hair behind an ear. “If it’s any consolation, I think I might be able to manage a simple song.”

“Oh, can’t we practice together?” Roxy shot upright and twisted around, all her fins fluttering. “That’s a great idea. We need to get the hang of this magic stuff anyway.”

“Not right now,” Dirk cautioned. “Its broad daylight. Any human that hears will know something’s up.”

“So tonight then?” Rose asked.

Dirk groaned and reached out for an oyster of his own. “I’m already starting to regret this.”  
…

~Karkat~

Karkat woke to the unfamiliar scent of brine and burning pancakes. Across the room he could see John still sleeping splayed out on his air mattress with an arm thrown over his eyes. Sunlight poured in through the large windows that overlooked the forest surrounding ocean. Karkat pulled the blanket up higher. It was way too early to be a functional human being.

Jake opened the door, his voice chipper. “Up up up, fellows! Grandad whipped up a fine early breakfast for the lot of us.”

John sat up at once, his eyes bright. “Oh sweet, I’ll be right down.”

Karkat turned around on his flimsy air mattress to face the wall and grunted.

“We’ll be right down,” John amended. “Don’t worry about Karkat. He’s not a morning person.”

“Alright, breakfast starts in ten,” Jake waved his way out of the room. “See you there.”

The door closed again and left John and Karkat alone again. “Do you ever think,” Karkat said grumpily, “that living out here in the absolute most desolate part of the planet all alone damaged their capacity to sleep in until a reasonable hour?”

John checked his wristwatch. “Karkat, it’s only eight o’clock.”

Karkat sighed and resigned himself to consciousness. The sun was still way too bright and he squinted against the glare. “I call the shower.”

…

The pancakes were not that bad once Karkat scraped off the blackened bits. Kanaya was there alongside her mother, both wide-eyed as Jade’s grandpa bustled around the kitchen with the energy of ten younger men.

“I’ll say, it’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to try the old irons and have us up a batch of batter for grubs,” the man said, beating a dozen eggs into a large bowl like they’d killed his dog twice.

Karkat was beginning to see where Jake got his odd and outlandishly old-fashioned speech patterns from. He listened in when Jade and Kanaya spoke.

“The island is really beautiful,” Jade was saying, “It’s full of surprises and hidden trails and fun animals. There’s even a few parrots here.”

“What about the volcano poising so ominously above our heads?” Kanaya asked, voicing the only sensible question Karkat had heard all day. “Is it a danger?”

“Oh, don’t worry. The volcano had technically been dormant for years,” Jade said, brushing away Kanaya’s fears. “But there’s some hot springs near the bay if you’d like to see them.”

“Hot springs?” John asked, perking up from where he was picking at his eggs as he gushed with enthusiasm. “That sounds so cool! Can we go?”

Porrim intervened before the talk could progress much further. “I’m sure there will be plenty of time to explore to your heart’s desire,” she said, “But remember not to stray too far. I don’t like the idea of anyone wandering off alone.” She then leveled at them a look of such stern motherly concern that Karkat instinctively ducked his eyes as a form of self-preservation. 

Karkat respected exactly three adults in his life, and two of them were Porrim Maryam.

“Yes mam,” John answered, the only one of them not affected severely enough by her impressive mothering abilities to speak up. John was like that. All the blows just slid right off of him with a wink and a smile. This was probably the only reason he and Karkat were still friends.

“I’ve got loads of cool things to show everyone,” Jake said happily, “I’ve been waiting for this adventure all year.”

It was hard for Karkat to sit there in the middle of them all in a tropical paradise like something out of a movie. There were actual fucking palm trees outside. And a beach with white sand and clear water that didn’t have a city’s worth of sewage running through it.

What had gone wrong with the world that he thought this was too strange to be real? 

But John and Jake’s excitement and joy was oddly contagious and as the meal wore on Karkat couldn’t help but feel more optimistic about this vacation. The Harley-Egberts were together at last and there was no force on earth that could hold up against that amount of good cheer. Their unnatural charm should have been classified a level five social contagion by this point, like smallpox. 

Karkat watched as John smiled at his cousins, something true and open, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. He hadn’t seen John make that expression in months. Maybe this vacation wouldn’t be so bad. 

He felt Kanaya squeeze his hand beneath the table reassuringly, and for once he was alright with taking a step back. The conversation swelled around him, enveloping him, as they began to plan out the day’s events on the back of a napkin. Grandpa Harley slid a fresh plate of bacon onto the table as he flirted shamelessly with Porrim despite an age difference of at least thirty years. 

It was good bacon too. Karkat felt the last dregs of sleep leave him. It wasn’t long after that that Jake and Jade had the three of them hiking through the sundrenched forest. Karkat had never seen so much sun in one place before. He thought the sun was the same everywhere, it’s all just from that fiery orb in the sky that never fucking changes. But here it was like someone had upped the saturation of his surroundings. 

Everything was hot and humid and all these tropical plants were unfamiliar and the bugs... 

Dear God the bugs.

Karkat wasn’t normally given to bouts of arachnophobia, but when said spiders were larger across that his fucking hands he figured they deserved a degree of respect drawn out of sheer common sense. He’d never really been in nature before. Nature was like the ocean- something vast and terrible that he should stay away from if given half a chance.

“Come on,” Jade called out, ducking past vines and walking through lush fern banks with a towel over her arm. “The hot springs are this way!”

Her brother was still tramping along like a young Indiana Jones in cut-off cargo shorts and glasses. “I know all of these paths like the back of my hand,” Jake said, “There’s nowhere on this island I haven’t explored.”

Kanaya removed a scrap of leaf from her dark hair with a flick of her slim fingers. Jade replaced it by tucking a red flower behind her ear with a smile.

Karkat’s skin was hot and prickly. This humidity was suffocating.

The hot springs were on the other side of the island. At least the crescent-shaped spot of land was narrow enough across that walking there by foot didn’t take too long.

They broke free of the tree-line. The leaf litter morphed into clean white sand underfoot. A deep blue bay stretched out in front of them, its northern end rocky with tide pools and clumps of jagged rock that extended well out into the sea. The first thing Karkat noticed was the five stone monoliths striking sharp and rugged from the water. The dark stone gleamed wetly where the saltwater touched it and barnacles crawled up the sides.

The center of the ring of ruins was occupied by a squat submerged building, completely underwater and topped with the tallest tower. It was also mostly intact, and a cut out near the top of the spire let the sun cut through in jagged bolts. 

“Holy shit,” Karkat said, tilting his head up to gaze at them. “You two really weren’t joking about those mysterious ruins.”

“Yeah, those bad boys are the biggest mysteries of this island,” Jake said, his eyes squinting up at the pinnacles. “I’d just love to get closer, but Granddad says they’re too unstable for that.” He let out a sigh, looking at the stone ruins with longing.

“And they’re also underwater,” Jade said, trying her wild hair up in a twist. “Its low tide, so there’s more of them exposed. Normally the first tower is completely hidden.”

The first tower was just a spit of rock just cresting the surface by maybe three feet. Karkat, though as intrigued as he was, could see the sense in staying away. Several of those towers were rickety and might come crashing down anytime. 

“Oh wow, that is some clear water,” John said. “I thought the sea was only this clear in movies. It’s just like glass.” The water was glittery with sunlight and gentle ripples that weren’t quite waves.

“Come on, the hot spring is this way,” Jake led the way, “It’s only available at low tide, so we’re on a schedule.”

The sand crunched pleasantly underfoot, all soft white powder that gave was to rounded pebbles as they approached the tide pools.

“Watch out for any jellyfish,” Jade cautioned, “They’re the only thing to worry about.”

Great. Just fucking great. Weren’t jellyfish, like, invisible or something? Karkat eyed the tidepools with mistrust. 

The tide pools were two shallow divots carved out of the surrounding rock by the sea, just high enough to trap a foot of water. A strange sucking sound popped obscenely as the water shifted. The sand was white as bleached bone. 

“There’s underground caves here,” Jake said, his eyes shining. “At high tide they fill with water, and at low tide they empty as the water level drops. The old lava tubes heat the water and it all escapes every twelve hours through that crack over there.”

The dark crevice was narrow, just a diagonal slash in the chunky rock face that water leaked out of from places unseen. John dipped his foot into the pool, only inches away from a bright blue starfish that had squished itself against the rocky face of the cleft. “It’s warmer than I thought,” he commented, “Like a hot tub.”

“Excellent,” Jade said, and she set her towel down on a rock and started stripping down to her swimsuit. It was light blue and blended smoothly with her tanned skin as she slipped into the shallow water. “Come on in guys, it feels great.”

Jake just unlaced his boots and tucked them out of reach of the water and splashed in shorts and all. He didn’t even remove his glasses. The two siblings were suntanned from living here, well-adjusted to the climate and its burning heat. John, by comparison, was a complete marshmallow. Karkat nearly winced, the kid would have a killer sunburn before the day was up, for certain. At least he and Kanaya had naturally darker skin, not that Karkat wouldn’t turn crab-red if he let the sun bake him for too long.

Kanaya wore a jade green one piece with a high collar that made her look elegant and sophisticated. Karkat felt like a clumsy kid in comparison in plain black swim trunks.

The water did feel nice, like a heated bath but with lots of little fish. There were even living corals in shades of blue and green. He kept to the side and watched all the tiny sea life inside the small zone. He could see some kind of flat worm creeping by, waving striped tentacles. It looked freaky, but in a good way. He couldn’t stop staring at it. 

“Are you enjoying yourself?” Kanaya asked. She settled in beside him and lounged out against the rock face. “This is quite relaxing.”

Karkat didn’t want to admit it, but really this wasn’t so bad. The water was nice and for once he felt some of the tension wound tight inside him come unknotted. He wouldn’t say he was relaxed, but it didn’t seem such an impossible state of being here in the shallows.

“I’m warming up to it,” he answered. Jake and John began wrestling in the tide pool, sending water splashing everywhere. They were loud as they roughhoused, and Karkat scowled and moved away. “I’m going to explore a bit,” he told Kanaya.

“Don’t go into the bay,” she answered, leaning back and closing her eyes as she soaked up the sun. “And try not to get lost. Mom would destroy the both of us in something happened.”

“I’ll try not to drown myself,” Karkat answered sarcastically, “I can swim, you know.”

“I am not judging,” Kanaya said, her eyes still closed. “Have fun.”

He followed the outer edge of the rocky slope until he felt the cooler chill of the sea eddying against his legs. It was deeper here, at his waist, and the heat drained away as it mixed with the water of the bay. He rolled his shoulders and tried to float, leaning back and letting the water reach his neck. He sank like a stone and came up sputtering as he spit out saltwater. Shit. 

He paddled further out, sticking close to the ledge as the water deepened to a blue and his feet didn’t touch the ground. He could hear John and Jake laughing and heard the far off sound of waves breaking against the distant reef.

He caught a glint of red out of the corner of his eye, a metallic flash of scales. His head whipped around and he scrutinized the bay, but there was nothing larger than a foot-long silver fish. Something twisted tighter inside his belly. He’d seen a flash of that same red just last night, there and gone again. He couldn’t shake the feeling he was being watched as he looked out over the water and the wind ran fingers through his wild hair. 

 

~Dave~

Dave knew that he was being a supreme idiot as he circled just out of the human’s sight. His siblings weren’t here to see his idiocy, thank Skaia, and this human had wandered away from the others. The boy crept along the rock ledge with his arms, paddling with his arms when he encountered a large gap between the stones. The drop-off here was steep and plunged down to the seafloor fifty feet below. Above Dave the human was small as he splashed around noisily, waving his arms and beating at the water.

The siren knew he shouldn’t be here. He should be far away, but… it was _this_ human. The same one from the boat last night that made Dave’s throat feel tight and his heart leap, with fluffy untamed black hair and brown eyes every bit as deep as the sea around them.

He drifted closer before he could stop himself, and when the human whipped his head around Dave twisted away and dove back down out of sight as his heart pounded. The faint buzz of magic lingered on his tongue. What was it about this human that drew Dave to him?

The teen didn’t look like a happy person and he was short even by human standards. His legs were thin and alien and he breathed air. His chest lacked any gills and his skin was scale less. Without the color of fins or tail he was just a dark smudge, nothing like the shiny flash of a siren’s colors.

The human clung to the rock, facing out over the water like he was searching for something. He never thought to look down where Dave hovered below. Typical human, believing the danger would come from anywhere but below.

Something crept slowly across the sea floor, keeping low and out of sight. Roxy’s face was smooth and her gaze interested as she came up alongside her brother.

“Spying on the humans, I see,” she whispered, her voice just a faint hiss. Her eyes were mischievous. “Don’t let Dirk see you.”

“They can’t see us down here,” Dave answered. “Their eyes burn in the sea and won’t be able to make anything out without those stupid goggles they wear.”

She considered the human above them as he attempted to swim across a bigger gap and ended up splashing his way across by flailing his arms wildly. “They’re not that stealthy,” she pointed out.

“Where’s Rose?”

“Following the others,” she said, her head tilted back to watch the boy. There was something strange in her eyes as she asked, “Do you ever think about it?” She said wistfully. “Singing.”

Magic still burned at the back of his throat. He swallowed it down forcefully. “All the time.” He wouldn’t lie to Roxy, not when she always knew the truth.

“I’ve tried it before,” Roxy said softly, “On fish and things. And I know Rose’s magic lends her clearer sight, but I still can’t help but wonder if, when I need to, I’ll be able to do it.”

Dave remembered his father, his voice strong and calm. That siren could sing the sea to sleep during a storm. He remembered something from back further, all the way to Skaia from when he was only five years old.

“Do you remember anything about Skaia,” he asked, the memory resurfacing as he watched his strange human fluttering overhead. “From the first time?” he clarified. Not from the second, where the sea ran red with blood and fire and they lost everything. His heart gave a pang as he fought the memory down.

“I was only four,” she answered. “I can only remember the good parts from when I was nine, before the ships came.” She said. “I remember everyone singing all at once. It was beautiful.”

Above them the human sent out ripples through the water that Dave could feel against his scales. Dave had been ten years old when the human hunters had taken everything from them. Even with that knowledge and heartbreak, when Dave looked up at the lone and vulnerable human above them just begging to be drowned, he couldn’t work up even a hint of anger.

“They’re not all bad,” he whispered. “The hunters may have killed us all, but these guys? They probably had nothing to do with it. Fuck it, I just can’t hate them, you know?” The admittance came from the heart. Dave just wasn’t a killer. He didn’t have it in him. 

“Me neither,” Roxy admitted. “It’s hard to hate something so helpless, in any case.” She looked away. “I don’t think Dirk hates them either, even if he has a hard time admitting it,” she said, sighing. “He tries so hard.”

The human pulled himself up onto the rocks and out of the water. Dave was hit with the strong urge to follow after him as he walked back to his friends and swallowed past a bitter taste in his mouth as he watched the human go. “Come on,” Dave said, looking for an escape, a distraction. “Let’s go find Rose.”

He reached out and grabbed Roxy’s hand, and they left the human that made Dave’s blood burn and his soul whisper and reach out. He couldn’t get away fast enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man chapter two always sucks, but at least there's some worldbuilding that went into here.
> 
> after this the tempo picks up and everything starts to fall into place


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is short so that's why it's early. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> If you havn't guessed it by now I actually started writing this particular fic nearly two years ago. That's why it sounds so different from my current work. That being said, the parts will soon line up again because I picked this fic back up recently and began working on it again. I kept all of the early stuff mostly untouched out of nostalgia and hey, it works, so why bother fixing it?

~Karkat~

Karkat was certain that something was watching him.

The proof was in the crawl of electricity over his skin as he felt eyes on him. From the sea, always the sea. He’d even seen it once or twice, crimson flickers out of the corners of his vision. A quick google search turned up nothing relevant for “creepy red marine life currently stalking me” and when he asked Jade about large local fauna she named nothing that could have ever been mistaken for that particular shade of red.

Karkat was certain it was scales. A scaled something that moved under the water. But that first night in the boat, he could almost have sworn he’d seen a face staring back at him from the ocean. 

He couldn’t go anywhere near the shore without seeing it and feeling its eyes on his back. It was driving him insane.

“Dude chill, I think you’re just being paranoid.” John told him, shrugging from where he sat cross-legged on his mattress.

“I am not being paranoid,” Karkat snapped, pacing the floor. “My response is perfectly validated by the fact that I am literally being stalked by some fucking red-assed sea creature.”

“I’m just asking,” John said, throwing up his hands. “So please don’t bite my head off, but have you actually seen this thing?”

“Yes!”

“Okay, then what does it look like?” John gave him a very indulgent smile, like one would give a toddler who cried about seeing a monster in their closet just to get them to shut up about it. Karkat wanted to scream. He wasn’t crazy— not this time.

Karkat scowled at him. “Don’t be a smartass about this. This is serious!”

“So you haven’t seen it,” John said smugly.

“No. I have,” Karkat defended himself. “Lots of times.”

“But you don’t know what it looks like?” John asked. It had only been a week, but already John’s skin was darker, tanned by the constant sun after his initial sunburn. The change made his eyes all the brighter, blue as the middle of the bay, blue as the sea itself.

Karkat couldn’t help but think that his friend fit in here with his cousins and the island. John always had this wild, carefree energy. He stagnated indoors, paced the walls listlessly. Out here, with two people his age who looked so painfully related to him, John shone. It was like everything bad from the city sloughed off of his shoulders, the toxins built up over years flushed from his lungs in the clean seaside air. 

It made him harder to look at, like he was lit from the inside. Karkat would put with any amount of freakish stalking in order to see John happy. 

“Look,” Karkat said, sighing. “I’ll go out there today. Alone. If nothing happens I’ll drop this for the rest of the vacation and I’ll stop bugging you about it.”

“Woah, wait,” John straightened up, his legs uncrossing. “Karkat, you’re not bugging me.”

John was too fucking nice. Even when he was angry or torn up about something he rarely realized it, or if he did the emotion was always disguised as another. He also didn’t recognize when other people were being cruel. He gave them the benefit of the doubt and then let them walk all over him. Vriska had used this to break him, once. Karkat was still picking up the pieces from the inevitable ending.

“Do you think you can keep Jake and Jade off of me for a few hours?” Karkat asked. “I want to see if I can get a good look at this thing.”

John bit at his lower lip anxiously. “If you think there’s some sea monster following you, do you really think it’s a good idea to go after it alone?” He asked logically.

Karkat hooked a plain pair of goggles around his neck and grabbed a dry towel. “Do you think it’ll show if there’s a fuck ton of loud teens splashing around?”

John sat back and threw an arm across his face. “If you die I’m telling everyone it’s because you’re stubborn and won’t accept help from others.”

“A-fucking-men.” Karkat nodded at his friend’s still form as he left. Outside, it was still bright and sunny. Was there ever an overcast day out here? It must rain sometime, right?

Karkat made his way down to the water. There was a small beach below the house and it stretched out into the open ocean of the Pacific. The dock was moored along one side where it stretched out over the surface of the water, a small fishing boat tied at the end and rocking softly with the waves. Without a protective reef on this side of the island the waves crashed rhythmically against the sand. 

Karkat eased out into the water and waded. The waves were gentle, the largest a foot high once he was out in the swells. He kept near the dock. He didn’t like how deep the water could get, all unexpected as the seabed dropped and slid away from him. A foot felt like a mile when the water closed over his head.

So he stuck to the dock where there was something solid to haul himself up on or grab onto for rest. He felt better with the solid wood nearby. It didn’t make him feel so alone in the openness of the sea. 

Karkat splashed around like a dumbfuck for a while, aware that he was being both ridiculous and stupid. He wasn’t the strongest swimmer, and alone out here made the risk all the more real.

Except he wasn’t alone.

Karkat felt the instant when the atmosphere shifted, when the back of his neck crawled with a sudden recognition. He felt the eyes of his stalker on him, and abruptly he realized what a terrible idea his whole plan was. What the fuck had he been thinking? Using himself as bait? What the actual hell.

He latched onto a post and felt barnacles slice at his palms. The wood was slick and grimy, but he held on as he pulled in deep breaths. Focus. He could do this.

He cautiously edged forward, into deeper water. He saw a flash as something glittered from down deep and his stomach dropped. What if he was attacked from below? What if it drug him under?

Karkat drew the small goggles up over his eyes with jerky movements and took one final breath before he plunged down head-first into the sea. He blinked as everything swam into a sharp focus, his legs kicking, where the dock cut straight shadows of darkness across the sea floor below. It was much deeper here that he’d originally thought, at least thirty feet. Rocks and coral made a small cityscape below, and from the shadows of the dock schools of fish flickered back and forth in silver and yellow.

He came up for air, gasping down a huge breath. His heart was pounding. Where did it go?

He dove again, determined, the water slicking his black hair down over his head. He tasted salt in his mouth as he spun around and scanned the seabed for movement.

Nothing. Not even any big fish.

Maybe it was further out? Karkat swam deeper following the dock all the way to its end. The seabed plummeted into the murk, fans of red and green waved in the current. There were more fish, bigger fish, and way more cool things to look at. Everything was very beautiful but he almost didn’t notice it. He was busy hunting.

He passed the small boat. The dock had ended and he was over a hundred yards from the shore.

The water was colder here, and he felt very small compared to the vastness of the empty void beyond. He ducked under the water one last time, but saw nothing. He could still feel it- he was being watched.

Now Karkat was getting angry. What kind of inconsiderate dick stalked him relentlessly then vanished before Karkat could get proof of his sanity? Fucking pain in the ass fucking sea creatures. 

He tried to drift, stretched himself out across the surface. If his stalker wouldn’t show itself that was its fucking business. Karkat was planning on enjoying his swimming trip without it. It’s not like he actually cared.

He still couldn’t manage to float, so he waved his arms to keep his torso from sinking as he gazed at the seafloor with rapture. It was like swimming into the middle of the set for Planet Earth. The Discovery Channel had shit on this view.  
…  
~Dave~

Dave found it easy to keep out of sight.

The water was deep and the dock cast thick shadows. When he slid in between two rocky outcrops the red siren could watch secretly as the human swam about. He was wary of the goggles and of the way the boy’s face kept scanning the seafloor. Dave thought he’d pushed his silent watching too far. He was certain the human was hunting for him.

The thought didn’t bother him as much as it should have. 

He let his tail scrap along the sandy bottom as he weaved closer, dragging himself along with his arms to stay low and hidden. He kept to the shadows as he wedged himself between two stones.

The human was drifting further and further from the end of the dock, still waving his arms. Dave knew the currents here, he felt them breeze against his scales with minute changes in temperature and pressure. The current here was gentle and mild. Harmless. Except, apparently, for a barely competent human swimmer grown tired and just realizing how far from the dock he’d let himself drift.

Dave watched the boy as he started to struggle. His legs kicked uselessly as he dangled vertically and oddly upright. Did he expect to paddle the whole way back? It was thirty yards to the dock, an easy distance. Dave could cross twice that in a few seconds. He didn’t realize the human was in any trouble as his legs stilled and his head rolled back.

Dave crept closer, at the end of the shadows. If he went out any further the sun would show on his crimson scales so he held back and watched, his heart aching as he slowly began to realize that something was wrong.

He didn’t dart forward until the human began to sink, a trail of bubbles spilling from between his lips.

Dave threw himself forward, his tail pumping as he streaked at the drowning human. He hit hard and fast, one hand hooking around the back of the boy’s neck and the other under his arm as he hauled him back to the dock. The boy kicked his useless legs the whole time and flailed blindly, choking on saltwater.

Dave kept his head upright and maneuvered the boy back to the dock, about halfway to the shore where the water was low enough for the siren to push him up out of the water and onto the flat surface of the dock. Dave released the human immediately and sank low, and heard him cough up a lung full of water, wheezing as he drew in great gulps of air.

He twisted beneath the dock, the human a foot above him. Dave felt his heart pounding as he lifted his head out of the water to hear better.

The human was still coughing. “Holy shit,” he wheezed, “ShitshitshitfuckshitfuckingFUCK, holy shit.”

Well at least he wasn’t drowning anymore. Dave circled closer. His tail sent ripples across the surface.

He wasn’t expecting the human to pull such a stupid move so soon after nearly drowning, which was when the boy rolled himself off of the dock and back into the sea a foot from the siren. Dave nearly hit him with shock as he reeled away.

The human’s eyes flew wide, oddly magnified by the googles strapped across his face. Dave’s back hit one of the poles supporting the dock and he froze, a human just a few feet away with wide eyes.

He’d been seen. He’d been seen. Oh shit. _Oh shit oh shit fucking hell._

Rational thought surfaced through the panic in Dave’s mind. He had to get out of here. Now.

Dave turned to dart away, his heart in his throat. He could feel his pulse in his ears and he tasted fear on his tongue. He’d fucked up. He’d fucked up so _bad_ …

“No, wait,” the human called out, still breathless as he hauled himself back out of the water with shaking arms. He collapsed limply on the dock with one arm dangling down over the edge. “Fuck it, stay put,” he ordered, his voice hoarse and rough.

Dave vanished back under the dock and out of sight. He should he swimming away and vowing to never come back, but something compelled him to stay. He kept close to the surface, his emotions torn in three different ways. 

“Dammit,” Dave heard the human curse. “I knew it. I fucking knew it.” Dave heard the human draw in a rattling breath before gasping out, “you asshole. Don’t save my life then swim away. Get your ass back here.”

There were a million other things Dave should be doing right now. But if he’d already made one royally bad decision he might as well go all in. Was staying to talk to the human that much worse than being seen by him? The damage had already been done. 

Dave spit up all the water in his lungs and hauled in a breath of air. Air was mostly useless to sirens, but it was necessary to talk above water. Vocal chords and shit. “Are you talking to me?” He asked curiously, still hidden.

“Oh shit, it speaks,” the human said sarcastically from above him on the wood of the pier. “Just my fucking luck.”

What the fuck? 

“Excuse me?” Dave asked, just as scathingly. “Sorry for saving your fucking life then, you ungrateful little fucker.” All in all the cursing did make him feel marginally better, more normal. 

A head appeared as the boy leaned over the dock, hair wet and dripping. The goggles were gone and he narrowed his brown eyes at the siren. They considered each other in silence, neither wanting to break first.

Dave came closer, sliding sideways so that his tail broke the surface and sent droplets of water through the air. The boy’s expression didn’t change.

“Are you alright?” Dave asked at last, the last of his panic fading as a deep sense of peace filled him that he didn’t understand. He couldn’t help but grin. “Done coughing up a lung?”

Dave received an impressive scowl in response before the human broke eye contact at last. “Yeah, thanks, I guess,” the boy said, “for not letting me die like the world’s biggest dipshit.” There was a moment’s pause. “So,” the boy said, “What the hell are you? And why have you been stalking me?”

“Spying would be a better term,” Dave shrugged. “You’re the one who moved in next door. I’m entitled to a bit of natural curiosity.” 

The boy raised a single unimpressed eyebrow. “Go on,” he urged.

“You can’t tell anyone about me,” Dave said quickly. “Anyone. Ever.”

The human scoffed. “Like they would ever believe me about the… you.” He trailed off meaningfully, still eyeing Dave with distrust. 

“Siren,” Dave explained.

“Siren,” the boy repeated. His head disappeared back onto the dock. “Are you sure I didn’t drown?”

Dave came around, into the light. He rose up out of the water and found himself at eye level with the human, who looked like he was experiencing an aneurysm. “I’m Dave,” he said helpfully.

“Dave.” The human said flatly. “I’m Karkat.”

“What were you doing all the way out here if you can’t swim?” Dave asked. “That’s a pretty good way to get killed,” he said. “It’s not every day a random siren swims by who can help.”

“Oh, bullshit,” Karkat said, resting his cheek against the wood as his eyes closed. “Like you’re some random siren. You just admitted to ‘spying’ on me. And for your information I CAN swim, just so you know.”

“So why’d you nearly drown?” Dave asked smugly. For some reason, the longer he talked the calmer he felt. Like, this Karkat guy wasn’t freaking the fuck out and was actually kind of nice to talk with? What?

“I did not expect the ocean to be so goddamn big and completely insufferable,” Karkat answered, groaning. “Also, unlike you, I am not adapted to living in the water.”

“But you are living here, right?” Dave asked curiously. “With the others?”

“What’s it to you?” Karkat asked, sounding faintly sick. “I’m never going in the ocean again.”

Dave heard a dog barking from the shore and instinctively dipped lower until the water reached his neck. Karkat opened his eyes.

“Wait,” Karkat said, “Do you live here too?”

Dave knew he shouldn’t answer him. The dog was running along the shore now, heading for the dock. He had to go. He really, really shouldn’t answer. “Yes,” he said.

“Will I see you again?” Karkat asked.

Dave watched him closely. Karkat’s eyes were steady and clear. Everything, all of his fears, fell away at the touch of that gaze. It was electric.

“Tomorrow,” Dave said quickly, forming the plan as he spoke. “Here, at sunset.”

Karkat nodded. “Sounds like a plan,” he said. The large white dog had nearly reached them. Dave could hear its nails clicking on the wood.

Dave dipped below the surface and spun away in a flash of red scales and pale skin. He stopped a few hundred yards away, where Karkat was just a bump on the dock. He waited until the boy threw an arm around the dog and sat upright before he could finally leave, the dog pushing its nose against him curiously. 

Dave turned away, spiraling through the water, the sunlight soaking into him luxuriously. He couldn’t hold back his smile and raced faster. He felt light, buoyed up with joy. His spirit was soaring. He chased after a pack of barracuda and laughed to himself as they scattered. 

He had been _seen_. He had spoken to a human and had finally learned the name of the boy who drew the siren in so effortlessly.

_Karkat._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now these boys have actually seen each other.
> 
> The entire Act one, Part One is all beginning. it's not until after the first Intermission that the real plot begins to settle in.
> 
> Yeah-- this will be a hugely long fic. It'll be like this:
> 
> Act one, part one.  
> intermission 1  
> Act one, part two  
> intermission 2  
> Act two, part one  
> intermission 3  
> Act two, part two  
> epilogue
> 
> And each part is like 9 chapters or something, but wow- once the plot kicks in... ;)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! Yay! 
> 
> Happy mermay have some more sirens!

Chapter four.

~Karkat~

Karkat crept back into the room he shared with John as silently as possible. He’d stayed out late wandering around on his own to try and clear his head. It was just too much to take in all at once.

He’d been followed, nearly died, and was saved by a half-fish boy with red scales and a voice that sent shivers down his spine. The siren had been… pretty alright actually. Karkat didn’t like meeting new people all that much; they all ended up pissing him off in some way. But Dave, even after humiliatingly making sure that Karkat didn’t prove John right by drowning, hadn’t set off the teen’s inborn alarms of general abrasiveness and assholery. It was probably just a fluke.

But then…

Karkat could remember the siren’s arms grabbing hold of him and hauling him to the dock. He remembered the jolt that shot straight to his core when he looked into the siren’s red eyes. Dave certainly didn’t feel like a stranger and maybe that was why Karkat didn’t instantly hate him like he did 99% of the rest of the population. The fact that he had a tail almost didn’t matter in the wake of this bigger mystery.

“Karkat?”

Karkat cursed beneath his breath, “Yes, John?”

John turned over to face him as Karkat pulled on his sleep shirt and threw himself down onto the thin air mattress. The entire thing bounced unpleasantly a few times before he settled in. His joints ached. Nearly dying was exhausting. 

“You’re back late,” John said. “Porrim was getting worried.”

“What the fuck are you still awake for?” Karkat said, deflecting the attention from himself with his favored method- verbal assault. “Shut the hell up and get some rest, goddammit Egbert.” He clutched as his heart dramatically. “You’re going to give me a stroke lurking in wait like that.” He burrowed deeply into the nest of blankets he’d made for himself and faced the wall.

“So…” John trailed off, not sounding even remotely tired or offended. He was such a curious fucker. “How was the hunt? Did you find it?”

Karkat grunted. “There are no sea monsters out there,” he said, and he didn’t think he was lying exactly. Dave was certainly no monster. “Just ocean bullshit and more scratchy sand that gets goddamn everywhere.” His voice was low and tired. He just wanted to sleep until tomorrow’s sunset but there was a scratching in his mind that wouldn’t let him rest. “John,” he found himself saying, his eyes facing the drab wall in the dark. He kept his voice low, whispering. “Do you believe in magic?”

John pushed himself up onto his elbows. Karkat could hear the mattress squeaking as he shifted. “That’s a really odd question,” he said. “You know I believe in magic.”

“I’m not talking about fucking card tricks and pulling rabbits out of hats,” Karkat explained, his temper flaring. “I mean the other kind.”

“What other kind?” John asked, “Is there any other kind?”

“That’s what I’m asking about,” Karkat clarified. “The other kind. The deep mysterious shit no one knows about. The kind that just… exists.” Or exists until some dumb fuck blundered face-first into it. Behind his closed eyelids he kept seeing the sun flash off of crimson scales. His stomach was churning, and even with how tired he was his mind just kept spinning uselessly between _ohmygodfuckinghellsirens_ and _whymefuckabsolutlyeverything_.

“Just… exists?” John said slowly, sounding confused. “I don’t get it.”

“Never mind,” Karkat growled. “Forget about it. It was a stupid question.” The image of Dave’s face, saying ‘you can’t tell anyone about me’ ran through his mind. The siren had been deadly serious. Karkat squeezed his eyes shut.

“What the hell happened to you today?” John asked, and Karkat heard him lie back down.

Karkat didn’t answer, because he had no fucking clue. He did know one thing though- that tomorrow, he would be at the dock at sunset. He had to see Dave again.

 

~Dave~

Dave spent the morning mulling over his choices. He’d already fucked up so thoroughly he was surprised Rose couldn’t read the truth off of his face. To go or not to go? Except it wasn’t a choice at all. Not even a little.

There was only one thing this could mean, this being the low coiling energy the siren felt and the way Karkat lingered in his mind. He still had panic in him from the moment he’d seen those silver bubbles leaking out from between the boy’s lips. In hindsight it made sense. In actuality it was ass-backwards and fucked to all hell.

Dave had never really considered meeting his soulmate before. It was too rare to even spare it half a thought. Sure, he’d heard stories of sirens finding their soulmate, everyone had, but that was a fantasy. A long-shot. So rare the magic was considered extinct. It was never actually supposed to happen!

And with a human. A two-legged air breather that could barely swim on his own without dying. Dave found out that, surprisingly, knowing he had a soulmate didn’t make him actually give a shit. The very idea of some pre-destined soulmate whaleshit could go fuck itself with an electric eel while gargling sea urchins.

He needed some advice, just to clear his head.

Dave caught up to his twin. Rose was a lazy streak of lavender against the sand as she twisted seaweed into knots. His sister might not be the best at singing, but she’d been gifted with something rarer. Sight was a shadowed power, twisting and convoluted. It was the shift in the rock’s cleft, teasingly just out of reach. It rarely gave any answers that Dave could understand, but Rose always knew far too much for her own good.

“Hey, can I have a moment with you,” Dave asked. She turned her jeweled eyes on him and feinted surprise.

“I had a feeling you would come to me,” she said. “You’re all twisted up inside. What happened?”

Dammit. There goes Rose knowing too much again. It was hells of unfair. 

“Why’d I miss out on the awesomely useless Sight powers?” He complained, instantly deflecting Rose’s scrutiny with a mountain of useless shit. “Not that I’m jealous or anything. I’m way to awesome just being myself. That’s probably the answer right there. If I had anymore awesome talents the entire ocean would collapse in on itself from the sheer force of my skill and stunning personality. I’d be skating over bitches throwing themselves in front of me left and right. The island would be crammed full of the torsos of the prostrate, a dozen hands all reaching out just to skim the end of my tailfin and pray a little of my awesomeness wears of on their unworthy fingers.”

She raised one unimpressed eyebrow. “I’m waiting,” she said, “My patience is limited, but I’m intrigued all the same.” She let the knotted seaweed drift away from her. “Your aura is different somehow,” Rose noted, her eyes narrowing as she focused on something Dave couldn’t see.

“Different how?” Dave swallowed. 

“Just… Different,” Rose said simply. “More focused.”

This is where things got tricky. Navigating a conversation with Rose without revealing his real problem or Karkat would be like swimming blindly into a sea cave and hoping the current wouldn’t smash him to death along the walls. 

“It’s about magic,” Dave began, “The old kind.”

Rose abruptly turned serious. Her eyes sharpened uncomfortably as she scrutinized her brother’s face. “I’m guessing you don’t mean singing,” she said slowly. “Can you be more specific?”

Specific was exactly what he couldn’t be. “I don’t know,” he said, “I just want to know if magic can be wrong.”

“Magic is not a sentient thing,” Rose murmured, lowering her voice. “If it could be said to have morals they would not be ones recognized by us. Magic just is, and we occasionally brush against it.” 

Yeah, this thing right here. Exhibit A- Sight was unhelpful as shit. “So you’re saying it can’t be either right or wrong,” Dave said.

“But it can be used for nefarious purposes if one so wished,” Rose answered.

“That’s not what I’m asking about,” Dave sighed in frustration. “Does magic ever _use_ us?”

Rose was silent. Her fins waved down her scales as she flicked her tail around. “You know Dave,” she said, “If you just told me the truth this would all be much easier.” She slid closer and Dave’s skin crawled with warning. “Do you feel used?”

“I feel like this conversation is going nowhere,” Dave said, leaning back from her.

Rose furrowed her brow with her own frustration. She looked hurt. “It wouldn’t be going nowhere if you’d open up to me.”

He had never been able to hide anything from his twin. He’d never even tired before. He told Rose everything… but not this. Not yet, at least.

“I will, but not yet,” He said, just to derail her impending chain of worry.

The answer seemed to satisfy her, at least for the moment. “I’ll catch up you about this later then,” Rose said, “And I expect a straight answer when I do.”

Dave nodded wordlessly. He just wanted out of the siren-human soulmate gig before someone got hurt.

Sunset could not come soon enough. 

…

Dave left when the sky was streaked with red and orange. He felt like he could feel Rose’s eyes burning a hole between his shoulder blades the entire time. It was getting harder to slip away unseen from his family. He took long detours along the coast and kept checking over his shoulder for a hint of lavender or worse, orange.

Dave didn’t feel safe hiding under the dock. He felt too exposed, to close to human architecture and unnatural wood. The sun was low enough to cut the shadows sideways and jagged.

But Karkat was there, his feet swinging off of the edge of the dock as the breeze ruffled through his dark hair. “You made it,” he grunted, half-surprised as he quickly took his feet out of the water. “I had nearly managed to convince myself you were just a hallucination from me almost dying.”

Dave smiled before he could stop himself as he looked up at Karkat. “Do you do that a lot? Almost die?”

“Probably too much for any sane person,” Karkat said. He drew his legs back up and rested his chin against his knees as he studied the siren. “I try not to make a habit of it, but the universe just really loves fucking up my life in particular.”

That sounded familiar. “Too bad,” Dave said, “You’ve seen me. Your life is permanently fucked up with sirens and magic shit now. No takebacks.” That kind of went against Dave’s point for coming here, but the words just poured out of him. Dammit. 

Karkat just snorted at him, unamused. “What the fuck is even up with you? Dave? That’s the most idiotic-ass boring human name in existence. There’s no way that’s your real name.” The human squinted suspiciously at red siren.

“Karkat,” Dave raised an eyebrow, “Dave is a perfectly normal name.”

“That’s my point,” Karkat complained, waving an arm for emphasis. “You’re altogether way to fucking normal. Like, you have a goddamn tail and all I can focus on is your fucking name.”

“Sadly I’m probably a lot more normal than you were hoping for,” Dave said, sighing. “There goes my big reveal. I was hoping to break the news a little more gently. Magic is useless and stupid and sirens are boring as fuck most of the time.”

“What are they the other times?” Karkat asked, rolling his eyes as he predictably walked right into the trap.

“The best fucking things to ever exist,” Dave proclaimed proudly. “We’re basically just superior in every conceivable way.”

“You utter dick,” Karkat commented, letting his inner anger show. “I won’t let the entire human race get dissed to my face by a guy who can’t even stand upright.” The insult fell off of the siren’s shoulders easily. He knew Karkat was just trying to get a rise out of him.

Dave shot another paranoid glance around for his siblings before he rolled onto his back luxuriously, red scales catching and holding the rapidly fading light. “Legs are overrated,” he said, “Fucking fight me.”

Karkat rubbed at the bridge of his nose like he had a migraine, like his head would explode at any moment. “This is insane,” he said, breathing deeply. “Why are we even talking? What sense does this even make?”

With a jolt Dave came to his senses. He’d come here to break it off with Karkat. How easy it had been for all of that to disappear at the sight of him, overtaken by a wave of joy and hope and a thousand other whaleshit magic crap he was so not about to deal with. 

“Yeah, about that,” Dave began, looking furtively around as he refused to make eye contact. Focus. 

“You keep glancing around,” Karkat noted, “Like you’re worried about being seen.” The boy’s eyes were clear and brown as he continued, staring out over the sea before locking eyes directly with Dave. “What else could be out there?” The amount of sarcasm in the words killed any possibility of it being a question. It wasn’t really a question.

Dave shrugged. It wasn’t like Karkat knowing would make him any more fucked. “I’m kind of gong behind their backs at the moment,” he clarified, lowering his voice to speak the damning words to the ever-listening ocean. “My siblings.”

 

~Karkat~

What the fuck? 

“Your siblings?” Karkat deadpanned. “As in, plural.”

“Yes.”

Karkat realized he was a moron for thinking of Dave as a singular being. Dave, the siren, not Dave, a siren. Big difference. 

“Great,” Karkat said, rapidly adjusting to this new bullshit. “Why the hell not? I guess I’m not even that shocked honestly.” Karkat sighed and the sound mirrored Dave’s earlier sigh exactly. Multiple sirens, and Dave going behind their backs to talk with him. This just couldn’t get any better.

“Do you have any siblings?” Dave asked curiously, “I have three.”

Karkat muttered fuck it under his breath before he answered. “No. No siblings here, but I live with Kanaya so I guess she counts?” The whole family thing always gave him a headache. He owed Porrim for more than he could ever pay back.

“That’s the other girl right?” Dave asked, water up to his chin again as he drifted effortlessly in a way that made Karkat instantly jealous, “The one with the gray eyes.”

“Yes,” Karkat answered, uncomfortable as the wind blew chill as the sun vanished. “I know she’s not a real sister, but I think of her like she is. It’s complicated.” He said. The reminder of his ‘real’ family made a sour taste coat the back of his throat, and he quickly changed the subject. “You said three siblings?”

“An older brother and two sisters,” he said. “I’m actually a twin, but me and Rose don’t really look anything alike.” There was something dark in his eyes, a warble in his voice that made Karkat suspect that there was more to that story. Something deep and painful.

“So there’s four of you,” Karkat said, internally facepalming before he realized that Dave had never mentioned any parents. Just him and his siblings. Something inside of him hurt at the thought and he wasn’t sure what his face did when he realized it, eyes going wide and his brow crashing down into an instinctive glower, but Dave must have noticed. 

“We don’t have any parents,” Dave said softly, looking down. “I never really knew my mom. She died a long time ago. We lost Dad a few years back.” The siren twisted away, ducking back beneath the surface again before bobbing back upright. “It’s complicated.” 

“Yeah,” Karkat said slowly, swallowing thickly. “I lost my parents too. I don’t remember any of them.” He said, and an echo of past pain sent a shudder through him. “I had an older brother, but I don’t remember him either.”

He kept the newspaper clippings from the wreck in a shoebox under his bed. The paper was all he had of them. Some mornings when John couldn’t calm him down and Kanaya’s cool rationality wasn’t helpful in the least and he wanted to break things and scream his throat raw, he would pull the paper out and stare at their faces and an empty place inside him would ache and ache.

People always said he was lucky that he had been young enough that he couldn’t remember them. Bullshit. He’d trade anything for just one memory, just one sliver of family. 

There was nothing Karkat could say about that. Not to Dave, not to anyone. He tried to anyway. Deflection was the best help he could offer. “Your siblings, they don’t want you talking to me?”

“That’s even more complicated,” Dave said, rolling in the water. “Shit.”

“Should I be worried about them?” Karkat asked, only semi-seriously as a bolt of unease twisted through his stomach. He imagined hands slipping around his ankles, tight as steel and twice as cold as they drug him under. He imagined drowning for a second time and the memory of it forced itself down his throat until he tasted the phantom of saltwater. 

“Naw,” Dave said, shrugging off Karkat’s concern with one bare shoulder. “They’re harmless. Any one of us would have stopped you from drowning.”

It wasn’t that comforting an idea. Something about Dave’s easy dismissal made him think there was more going on. “So why are you talking to me?” He challenged.

The siren kept silent, just for a long enough moment that Karkat though he wouldn’t answer. “I’m not sure,” he said, sounding torn. “I actually come here to say goodbye, but I’m starting to think I should just fuck that idea. There’s just something about this that feels right.”

Surprisingly Karkat found himself agreeing after he shoved down the wave of instinctive panic at the idea of Dave leaving. He wasn’t sure why but that was the last thing Karkat wanted, for the sea to swallow this red-scaled and red-eyed boy whose gaze tugged at his chest in a way Karkat didn’t want to think about. 

Talking with a mythical creature didn’t seem so far-fetched with Dave floating so near in all his half-fish glory. He didn’t make friends easily. He didn’t like meeting new people or talking or even really interacting with the populace of the planet at all. But Dave… talking with the siren just felt right. Like a cup of hot coffee after a cold night spent alone.

“Dammit,” Karkat sighed dramatically, waving his arms again. “What the actual fuck is wrong with both of us? Is this some kind of mutually inclusive magic siren insanity bullshit?” It was an honest question; the red siren had already said the word magic out loud several ties and Karkat was just rolling with that.

Magic was real. Holy fucking shit. That was one mental breakdown he’d put down for later—right now he had to focus. 

“I don’t think so,” Dave said, “I’m pretty sure I would have noticed any magic shenanigans swimming amok. They’re kind of my area of expertise,” the siren bragged. 

“So you admit magic is real,” Karkat said, already recognizing the migraine forming behind his eyes. “But expect me to believe that this isn’t some magic plot to lure me to my death?” Isn’t that what sirens did? Lured hapless sailors to an early grave in Davy Jones locker?

Dave just laughed and splashed at him, the droplets falling short of the dock. “Dude, if I wanted you to drown why the fuck did I save your loud-mouthed ass?”

Shit. He was right. Karkat wasn’t thinking clearly. “So you’re not planning on drowning me?”

Dave swam closer with a flick of his tail, his face only a few inches away. “Do you want to test that theory?” He asked, reaching out a single hand for Karkat to take. There was something mischievous in his red eyes that reminded Karkat uncomfortably of John on a pranking spree. Maybe that connection was what prompted Karkat to reach out and accept the siren’s hand.

The water was cool when he slid in, instantly wetting everything but his hair as he paddled upright. Dave was so close he could feel the eddies of water swirling against his bare legs from the siren’s swimming. The danger here should have been obvious and glaring, but there was no part of Karkat’s mind screaming at him to get out of the water. Common sense had flown right out the goddamn window. He only realized he was still holding hands with Dave when the siren pulled his fingers free, but Karkat wasn’t going anywhere.

He let out the breath he’d been holding with a full-body shudder. The sea was warm against him as he bobbed in the slight current. 

“See?” Dave said, uncomfortable close. He didn’t come any closer, but he did share a smile. “No drowning here.”

Karkat snorted and almost got saltwater up into his sinuses. He coughed, splashing.

“You okay?” Dave asked, concerned. 

“Fine,” Karkat gulped, righting himself in the gentle swells. “Is the ocean always like this?”

“Like what?” Dave asked. 

“In motion,” Karkat said, gritting his teeth. The water was constantly changing and shifting, and he had to struggle through it all while Dave floated there unmoved. 

Dave looked at him strangely. “The sea is not a static thing,” he said. “The water breathes and runs. It’s never still.”

The oddly poetic answer amused Karkat. “You make it seem so easy,” he said, instantly envying the easy way the siren floated next to him. 

Dave cocked his chin to the side, his eyes twinkling. “I have an idea,” he announced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah... i probably see the most particular writing issues with this one but i hope its not that obvious to readers so i won;t int anything out in specific. Just kow that the general tone and quality WILL improve soon as we hit the new material.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kinda a short bridging chapter, but oh well its full of fluff so <3

Dave snuck off to meet with Karkat every day for the next week. He felt like he could feel Rose’s eyes burning a hole between his shoulder blades the entire time, and her gaze grew stronger each time he swan back with another whaleshit excuse. He could only go solo fishing so many times before they expected him to return with something more than empty hands and a shrug.

He felt bad about going behind their backs, but he would tell them. Just... not right now. Not when he had a mission. Dave swam off towards the dock again.

Karkat was there waiting, wearing those same plain black swimming trunks that he insisted were necessary. Dave just chalked it up to more human cultural weirdness. A pair of goggles were strung around the boy’s neck to protect his eyes from the salt as he stood waist deep in the waves.

Right now the swells were calm and rolling. They only broke closer to shore. Out here they simply licked up the human’s chest as they passed and made Dave bob up and down like a piece of driftwood.

Dave was teaching Karkat to swim. It was a slow process, mainly because Karkat argued relentlessly that he could swim just fucking fine on his own. But Dave had saved his ass once already and he didn’t want the boy to drown if he went into the water without Dave there to haul him out if something happened. 

“Anything new happen that I want to know about?” Dave asked curiously as he surfaced near the boy. 

Karkat nodded, his mouth twisting into a distinctly pissed look that was his default expression. “Kanaya tried to fix Jade’s hair this morning and ended up breaking her comb on Jade’s untamable snarl of hair. Jake insisted we give the thing a proper sendoff and drug me along to a funeral for a hair brush. There were flowers Dave, what the fuck am I supposed to do with that?”

“What did Porrim do?” Dave asked, quickly imagining the scene for himself as Karkat kept him up to date on all of the island’s inhabitants.

“She had a spare brush in her room,” Karkat sighed with exasperated respect for his semi-adoptive semi-caretaker, “Porrim is nothing if not prepared for a cosmetic disaster.”

“Oh my God that’s fantastic,” Dave said, “Dude, all your friends are fucking insane.”

“I know,” Karkat said, easing himself deeper into the ocean. “But I’m used to it, and anyway I guess I just expect that kind of dipshittery on a daily basis now. It’s only been a little over a week and I’m mostly immune to Jade and Jake’s wild island child bullshit antics. It’s a miracle.”

“I’d bet it is,” Dave answered, a part of him wishing he could share a similar family mini-crisis about something meaningless and insignificant. “You’re still not trusting the water right,” he pointed out as he watched Karkat flail in the ocean.

“Fuck off, I’ve got this,” Karkat grunted, his breath already coming in pants as he promptly exhausted himself with the same useless arm-waving that got him in trouble last time.

“Try not to be so upright,” Dave said helpfully, “It’s the sea, being vertical is useless and counter-productive.”

Karkat swam like he was fighting someone, each limb fought and flailed to keep his chin above the surface as he stayed stubbornly upright. He splashed too much and spent too much energy getting absolutely nowhere. His shoulders were tense and his legs beat out of order.

“Like this,” Dave said, letting himself drift onto his side, “Don’t use your legs so much. Let the water hold you upright.”

“I’m trying,” Karkat spat out a mouthful of salt water. He forced his legs to still, but redoubled the effort in his arms as he paddled upright.

“That’s not helping,” Dave pointed out. It was kind of amusing to watch the human squirm in the sea like this, those skinny legs attempting to replicate what came so naturally to Dave. 

“Shut up, I’m trying to concentrate,” Karkat snapped angrily. He tried to mimic Dave, but the instant he tried to turn over his torso sank like a rock and he came up sputtering. “I can’t fucking float, dumbass.”

“Just take a break,” Dave said, “Catch your breath before you exhaust yourself further.”

“It’s not my fault I breathe air,” Karkat grumbled under his breath. “Not all of us have mutant fish gills.”

Dave ignored the mutant comment. “Here, just relax,” the siren said, and Karkat ducked under again and came up again looking like a drenched seabird. Dave sighed internally as Karkat began to struggle again, nearly going under. Moron. 

This might be a harder task than expected. 

“Like this,” Dave said, and his hands caught the boy and held him upright. Karkat gasped in a lungful of fresh air. Seriously, this was exactly why he needed to learn how to swim correctly. Dave felt the warmth of the boy’s skin under his palms.

“I’m fine,” Karkat gasped out, clearly too freaked out to register much more than the fact that Dave was touching him. “Fucking let go of me.”

Dave turned him loose and Karkat began to sink immediately. The siren spared a second to roll his eyes before fishing the boy upright again. Karkat’s fingers clawed at his shoulders as he clung to the siren with his eyes wide. “Shit,” he breathed, “Holy fucking shit this shit is so not a good idea. I should never have gotten back in the water what the fuck was I thinking?”

“Easy,” Dave said as the human began to hyperventilate, Dave holding him. He looked Karkat in the eyes. “I’m right here. The odds of you drowning are so far below zero that shit’s just ridiculous. Breathe.”

Karkat’s eyes were still wide with a growing panic. Dave tried harder to help. “Swimming isn’t a battleground,” he tried to explain. “Beating at the water isn’t going to help. Yelling and waving your arms isn’t going to magically make it do what you want.”

“That method has worked pretty well for me in the past,” Karkat argued, his fingers still in claws as he latched onto Dave. “What should I do?”

“Relax,” Dave told him, “Stop fighting it. Let the water hold you.”

Karkat, still being held up by the siren, slowly stopped his flailing. He was still freaking out though, his eyes wide and his chest heaving with hissing breaths. “Relax,” he repeated incredulously, “I can never relax.”  
“Then don’t,” Dave said, changing his methods. “Just stop fighting it.”

Karkat hung in his grip, every muscle wound tight as rope. “I don’t know how.”

“Then let me show you,” Dave said, “Trust me.”

The urge to sing Karkat limp and plaint rose up in his chest, to steal his fear and replace it with the sound of his voice, but Dave swallowed it back down hard. He wouldn’t use magic on Karkat like that.

But the human did listen, as best as he could with the instinctive fear of deep water he had. Karkat slowly stopped digging his nails into Dave’s shoulder as his breath evened out. His legs stilled.

“Better,” Dave said, “Now lay back.”

Karkat couldn’t do it. The human instinct to stay upright was a strong one, but Dave was persistent. “Float dammit,” he said, “I’m trying to help you.”

Karkat was stiff as a reed. His legs stuck out like branches and he kept his hands in fists at his sides. “You need to relax,” Dave said, “Trust that nothing bad will happen. I’ve got you.”

Slow as the sun moving across the sky some of the tension left Karkat’s shoulders. Every time he breathed in Dave felt him become more buoyant as air filled his lungs. Dave held him at the surface with his hands, his tail beating slowly as he stayed in place. Water lapped at his chest, just above the lines of his gills.

Soon Karkat was lighter, just the tips of Dave’s fingers supported him. “Now,” Dave said softly, “The next time you’re swimming and get tired, this is what I want you to do. This right here,” he said. “I want you to lay out like this and just let yourself float until you’ve caught your breath again.” He took his hands out from under Karkat, and the human stayed put. He was like a log, bobbing gently in the sea. 

“I’m floating,” Karkat said incredulously. “How the fuck?” He rolled back upright, his face open and the panic gone. “I was floating.”

“Yes,” Dave said, “Now do it again.”

Karkat immediately splayed himself out as resumed his best impersonation of a cork. “This is fucking fantastic,” he said. “I could do this all day.”

“That’s the point,” Dave laughed. “Maybe you’re not such a hopeless swimmer after all.”

Karkat splashed a wave of saltwater at him and Dave ducked back beneath the surface, circling around the human in a flash of crimson and pale skin as his gills absorbed all of the oxygen he needed from the surrounding water. He hadn’t realized how late it was. The sun cut jagged slices out of the sky in shades of pink and orange that reminded him of Dirk and Roxy.

Karkat continued to swim above him as Dave crept below. He didn’t like staying at the surface so much. The air dried out his eyes and talking for too long made his weak lungs tired. He liked the deeper water much better. The water wasn’t that deep here, it was less than twenty feet to the sandy bottom. The floor here was flat and clear and far too open. The skin crawled at the back of his neck with sudden unease. He couldn’t feel anything large swimming nearby, but that didn’t matter. He was certain he was being watched. 

He whipped around to the dock and caught a glance of a familiar head duck back out of sight and his stomach dropped like a stone. Busted. 

He surfaced immediately, spitting water out of his lungs so he could speak. “Karkat, get back to shore.”

The human heard the shift in his voice, the sudden change in posture as Dave’s easy going stance went on the defense.

“What is it?” Karkat asked, still paddling with his arms. “A shark?”

“My sister,” Dave said. “So yes, basically.” Haha, Rose would get a kick out of that if she’d heard. 

“Holy fuck,” Karkat breathed, “This isn’t good.”

Dave hated his head being above the surface like this. He was exposed and blind. Rose could be on them at any moment. “Swim fast,” he said, “I’ll hold her off.”

That got Karkat’s attention. His brows crashed together into a scowl, but he turned away and began kicking for the shore as fast as he could. Dave ducked back below the surface, expecting a face-full of lavender whoopass.

Rose was still out of sight below the dock. He hoped that she was alone. “Rose, I know you’re there.” He called out, torn between going over to her and sticking close to Karkat, who was still struggling to reach the shore.

In the end Rose came to him, her purple eyes clear of any suspicions. She must have seen enough then. Shit shit shit shit shit.

He kept himself between her and Karkat. “How much did you see?” He asked. There was no need to act like nothing was wrong, not with a human so close.

Rose pulled alongside of her twin, all stretched out and purple scaled with pale lanky limbs. “Enough to know that this isn’t some random happenstance of an occasion,” Rose shrugged, her face curious but surprisingly not shocked. “How long have you been sneaking away to see him?”

“You’re not upset?” Dave asked, confused.

“Dave, I knew what you were doing all along,” Rose sighed dramatically, “Seer, remember?”

That gave him a heartbeat’s worth of pause. “Man, I suck at keeping things from you,” Dave admitted, secretly pleased that Rose knew and wasn’t in a raging fury over it. It’s like a weight fell off of him. One sibling down, two to go. “I was going to tell you, you know.”

“What’s his name?” Rose asked, and Dave let his defensive posture slip away as Rose joined him in watching the human. Karkat made it to the shore after taking a few breaking waves to the face. He staggered upright, one hand thrown up as he squinted at the sea, water falling off of him in streams.

“Karkat,” Dave answered. “He’s one of the new ones that arrived last week.”

Rose shifted closer, her tail brushing against his. “I should have been able to guess which one it was,” she said, “But my dreams weren’t so clear.”

Dave thought about asking, but brushed it away as seer magic and so not his thing. “I don’t even think I want to know,” he said, turning back to face the shore. “I should probably let him know everything’s cool. He still doesn’t really know about sirens and might think we’re out here dueling to the death or some shit.”

Rose raised a single eyebrow. “Well,” she said, “We can’t let him form the false impression that sirens are a violent and brutal species, can we?”

“You just want to say hi. Just so you can psychoanalyze him,” Dave said, not really caring. All of his concerns were buried beneath a wave of relief that Rose was alright with this. It made him realize how stupid he had been to try and keep this from his twin. They were in this together.

“I am intruded as to what type of human could reel you in,” Rose admitted. “I had thought you were a hopeless case altogether.”

Dave’s jaw fell open. “What?” he said weakly.

“It’s just that you’ve never shown any interest in the subject before,” Rose said, “Any romantically availably siren we’ve met you’ve ignored. I had thought that-”

“You know what never mind,” Dave said quickly, interrupting as he resisted the urge to cover his ears like a child. “We are so not getting into this.”

“If you insist on dropping the subject now I’ll only bring it up later,” Rose warned.

“Later is better than right fucking now,” Dave grunted, his head spinning. “Let’s just get this over with.”

He was partly afraid that Karkat would have left, disappeared into the dark tree line. Instead the human found the dock and was marching determinedly down it with his eyes scanning the water. He held a rock in one hand that he nearly threw at Dave when the siren popped up to the surface and shook the water from his hair. “Sup dude,” he said, “I hope you’re not planning on reaming my sister with that.”

Karkat narrowed his eyes. “What the fuck Dave?” He said, raising the lumpy rock. “What’s going on?”

“In short my sister is a stalker and wants to meet you,” Dave said, “So maybe cool it with the rock, though I appreciate the gesture.”

Karkat had the audacity to roll his eyes. “You overdramatic douche,” he said. “I was worried you were having your face torn off.”

Proof of Karkat’s worry sent a thrill through him. “I was partly worried about that too,” Dave admitted, though he knew it wasn’t literal fear. “But she’s being surprisingly chill about this.”

Rose swam around him in an elegant circle without touching the surface, her tail a streak of lavender. Karkat’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head. 

Rose’s head appeared and she blinked at the human slowly, her expression cutting and probing. “Your name is Karkat, correct?” She asked.

Karkat huffed out a breath, “Yeah,” he said, “So fucking what?”

Surprisingly, Rose simply smiled at him. “Oh,” she said, her eyes wide and mischievous. “That explains a lot actually.”

Dave resisted the urge to smack himself in the face. His sister’s eyes were nearly glowing. No wonder she wanted to get a good look at him. Fucking Seers and their whaleshit magic. Rose shot him a look that spoke volumes, the kind only twins could pull off.

“You’re Rose, aren’t you?” Karkat asked, still holding the rock. “Dave told me about you.”

“I expected as much,” Rose said coolly. “Dave is not known for his ability to shut up. Ever.”

“Hey,” Dave protested, “That’s just unfair. I can keep secrets just as well as anyone. Me having a twin is just not a secret worth keeping. Nothing is, really.” Privately Dave thought secrets were overrated. He could understand withholding something that might cause unnecessary hurt, but keeping a secret just for its sake of being mysterious as all hell? Fuck no.

Rose rose up higher in the water for the sole purpose of glowering down at him. Karkat made an odd noise, like he choked on air.

“Shit,” the human breathed, his chest still heaving, “Holy fuck,” he tried to look away, his cheeks burning scarlet enough that even Dave could tell.

“What?” He asked. “Are you choking on something or—”

“Nothing!” Karkat shrilled, his voice high and wheezy. “Nothing at all,” he said, “I’m just staving off a mental breakdown is all.”

“Does this happen often?” Rose asked curiously, the psychoanalysis countdown beginning as she started her questioning spiel.

Karkat glanced at her again and his face redoubled its effort to become the color of coral. “No,” the human said, “Yes? Maybe, fuck if I know.” He said. He nearly clubbed himself with the rock as he attempted to cover his eyes, and with a flash of insight both of the sirens realized the issue.

Rose reacted differently to the realization than Dave, because Rose was hells of into this kind of cultural whaleshit and had next to zero internal morals when it came to making others uncomfortable. It was a talent of hers.

“Is your apparent embarrassment stemming from the fact that I am unclothed?” Rose asked, her eyes shining with a cruel merriment. The siren was downright gleeful. His twin could be scary like that. 

“NO!” Karkat defended himself, “I, it’s just that…” he trailed off, his face still scarlet. Dave just wanted to be far away. Why did his life make absolutely no sense? What did he ever do to deserve this kind of punishment?

“Is it then that you find my breasts dissatisfactory?” Rose asked, “By human standards they may be small, but by siren’s they fall well within the average parameters.”

“Okay, that’s enough!” Dave said sternly, “No more of this topic forever. It’s over. Dead. To speak of it is to be cast into the darkest sea trench I can find.”

“And what is it being cast asunder in such a striking manner?” Rose egged him on.

“Me. It’s me,” Dave deadpanned, “Because if I hear one more word of this I’m throwing my own screaming body into the depths.”

“Can I join you?” Karkat asked, still mortified. 

“Alright, moving on,” Dave said, struggling to block out the memory of the last two minutes permanently from his mind. “Rose, Karkat. Karkat, my twin sister Rose. There,” he said, “I have fulfilled all proper introduction tropes.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Rose said, “Truly.”

The color was slowly fading from the human’s face as his breathing steadied. “Likewise,” he said, squinting closely between the two sirens. “I can tell you’re twins, but you don’t really look that much alike.”

“I take more after my mother,” Rose answered. “Fraternal twins only share a normal degree of familial resemblance, in any case.”

Karkat just grunted, but he did bend down to let the rock drop from his hand.

Rose ducked close to him, whispering. “We have to tell the others,” she breathed into Dave’s ear. “The sooner the better.”

Dave knew more sneaking around would just be stupid by this point. “Yeah, probably,” he whispered back.

“What are you two plotting?” Karkat asked suspiciously. 

“Well, now Rose knows about us,” Dave said out loud, “And she’s taking it rather stunningly, so now she wants to let the other two in on the friendship-with-a-human thing.”

“Is that a good idea?” Karkat asked, worried. “I’m all for family shit, but if it puts anyone in danger I can’t just stand by.”

“No, Roxy will probably be overjoyed,” Rose murmured, her brow furrowed. “She’s been itching to talk to new people ever since we got here. She’ll probably sneak off alone and ambush some poor soul on her own if we don’t introduce her soon.”

“Oh my fucking god,” Karkat face-palmed in sheer exasperation. “John.”

“Who?” Rose asked.

“Is Roxy pink by any chance?” Karkat asked, his voice muffled by his fingers. “I was going to ask Dave about it earlier. John mentioned seeing something pink in the water that kept following him around a few days ago. I told him he was just being an idiot, but now…”

Dave grimaced. “We deserve this,” he told Rose. “It’s our fault she’s starved for new people. There’s no way just us can keep her occupied without her becoming a maladjusted social clusterfuck from the isolation of living with just us because fuck knows we’re all fucked up as it is.” 

“I suppose it’s inevitable then,” Rose sighed with the air of one witnessing a tragedy. “I suspected as much.”

“More Seer shit?” Dave asked.

“More Seer shit indeed,” Rose clarified. Strangely that made him feel slightly better about all of this. Arguing with temporal inevitability was something doomed from the start.

“Can someone fill me the fuck in?” Karkat ordered. “I’m lost.”

“Okay, we need a plan of action,” Roe said, “If the whims of fate are dead-set on everyone becoming friends then we need a good way to avoid any undue amounts of strife.”

“Are you saying that you actually want to meet John?” Karkat asked, his eyebrows raised.

“Is that a bad idea?” Rose asked, “You know him better. Would he react well to the knowledge of a seafaring sister species?”

“Oh holy fuck” Karkat said, “That dipshit would be over the fucking moon about it.”

Dave left the conversation to run a quick circuit around the area, scanning for other hidden siblings he should know about. Letting Rose sneak up on him was bad enough.

He quickly returned to the dock, half expecting the conversation to have disintegrated into insults.

“What’s the plan?” He asked one it became apparent that they were still getting along.

“Tomorrow,” Karkat said, “Rose thinks the sooner we do this the better. Porrim wanted us all to have a picnic on the beach at the bay anyway. It’s a good time for everyone to get together without the adults finding out.”

“It also gives us ample time to give those not in the know a word of forewarning,” Rose said, “Dirk in particular, I might add.”

“Probably Kanaya as well,” Karkat said, scrubbing the drying salt from his skin. “Everyone else I think will be alright with this, but her? Skepticism is her strong suit. She won’t believe anything until she sees it for herself.”

“That’s two potential problems we can avoid tonight,” Rose said, “Does anyone have any objections or concerns?”

“None,” Dave said, “We’re making this happen. We’re doing this.”

“Indeed,” Rose said with a smile. “We are making this shit… transpire.”

“This is a twin thing isn’t it?” Karkat asked, nearly groaning at the sloppy word work.

“No,” Dave said.

“Yes,” said Rose.

“Tomorrow,” Karkat confirmed. “May God have mercy on our souls.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next on the to do list-- big family meeting shenanigans 
> 
> I think there's two more chapters till we hit the current stuff. Bear with younger me's writing till then pls


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter yay!

Karkat waited until after dinner to drop the bombshell. He approached John first, for multiple reasons. “Have you seen Jade and Jake around?” He asked, leaning into the doorway to their shared room.

John’s blue eyes flicked up to him. “Yes, they’re just outside with Bec,” the boy said, dressed in a light blue t-shirt that matched his eyes. “They should be back in a minute.”

“Perfect,” Karkat said, “John, can you keep a secret?” He closed the door behind him and wished there was a lock. This was supposed to be secret, and having the door unlocked just felt wrong.

John bounced to his feet. “What kind of secret? And who will I have to keep it from?” He eyed the closed door in anticipation, nearly vibrating with repressed excitement. 

“Porrim,” Karkat answered, and John’s face fell. “The granddad too.”

John groaned, his excitement soured at the thought. “Porrim? Do you really think we could keep anything from her?” He asked logically. “What about Kanaya?”

“No, she’ll be in on this clusterfuck too,” Karkat said, “I have that on good authority.”

“Who’s authority?” John asked. “Jade’s?”

“Can you just sit down and listen?” Karkat said, and John folded his legs up and fell into full-lotus position on the floor. This was going to be hard, Karkat could tell. “If I tell you this, I need you to promise that you won’t say a word about it to anyone outside of us. No one else, EVER. It’s that serious.”

“Is it about your dad?” John asked, his never-ending curiosity nearly driving Karkat mad as he interrupted yet again. “Like, I know he isn’t exactly a good guy, but what kind of secret could-”

“No, this is not about my bullshit mobster foster custodian.” Karkat snapped. “For fuck’s sake, stop interrupting.”

John fell patiently silent, and Karkat knew he wouldn’t stay quiet for long. Might as well get this over with. He sighed, “John, do you believe in sea creatures?”

“Yes,” John answered immediately.

“What about sea monsters?”

“Totally.”

“Remember when I thought I was being stalked by some random sea monster and kind of went paranoid off the deep end about it?”

John’s eyes widened. “That was real?”

“Number one, for the love of everything holy if you interrupt me again I’ll flay you into next week,” Karkat threatened, and John made a show of zipping his lips with two fingers and a thumb. “Two, sea monsters don’t actually exist, numbnuts, but there is something that does.”

John opened his mouth, but closed it again when Karkat shot him a look of pure anger with the words don’t fucking dare writ large across his face. “Sirens,” he spat, just to get the word out. “Sirens, as in, half fish people with gills and scales and all that shit. They’re real, and I kind of fell ass-backwards into being friends with one of them and now his sister thinks for some unknown fucking reason I’m sure I won’t fucking understand, that we should all try to be friends.”

John just stared at him.

“Which means,” Karkat pressed, “That tomorrow I’m getting everyone together to meet them. This is your warning, right now, not to make a fool of yourself. Any questions?”

John busted out laughing, his torso convulsing with it. “Wow,” he said, “I didn’t think you had it in you Karkat, a joke.”

“It’s not a joke,” Karkat gritted out through clenched teeth. “I’m being one-hundred fucking percent serious.”

John wiped away a tear of merriment. “I think I’m rubbing off on you at last,” he said.

Karkat struggled to maintain his focus and stopped himself from imagining a version of him with John’s chipper enthusiasm. He nearly puked at the thought. “I’m serious,” Karkat said, dropping his anger. “I’m not fucking playing around.”

John was dense and could be a fickle idiot at times, but he knew Karkat better than anyone else. He knew when the grumpy teen was being serious.

John swallowed his joy with a gulp. “You’re not kidding, are you?”

“Nope,” Karkat said. “Sirens. Actual scaled sirens. Welcome to my own person hell, John,” he said, deeply relieved that he didn’t have to carry this weight alone anymore. Out of everyone in the world, he could trust John. John would always be there to look out for him, once he got over the shock of actual living sea creatures.

“Sirens?” John asked, “Like from old fisher’s tales? The kind that lure sailors out to sea by singing and eat them and stuff?”

“Not exactly,” Karkat admitted. “They don’t seem too terrible actually? Like, I think it’s just been them out here for so long and they’re lonely. They just want to meet us.”

“You’ve met them?!” John screeched, and John could see fear overtake the joy in his crystal clear blue eyes. “Karkat why? What if this is a trap and they just want to eat us?”

This… this was unexpected. “Look, I didn’t mean to meet them,” Karkat explained quickly as John began to hyperventilate. This wasn’t good. John only did that when he started losing it. “I almost died,” Karkat said, and he could physically feel the second that John held his breath. “I almost died, drowned myself like the selfishly worthless dipshit I am because I’m not as strong a swimmer as I thought I was and went out alone even though you asked me not to, and so I nearly died choking on a lungful of saltwater. The only reason I didn’t was because one of the sirens was nearby and pulled me out.”

John was completely still. “They saved you?” He asked softly.

“Yes,” Karkat said, “If they wanted us dead I wouldn’t be here.” He sank to the floor beside John, going cross-legged. John’s face was clouded and troubled, but not as panicked as it had been before.

John recovered quickly once he realized that Karkat had been saved by one of them. Karkat could feel it as the anticipation began to trickle back into him and the sad slope left his shoulders.

John bopped Karkat in the forehead unexpectedly, like he was swatting a fly. “You moron!” He said, “I told you not to go out there alone, and what did you do?”

“Not important anymore,” Karkat defended himself. “I’m not dead, and Dave has been teaching me how to swim.”

“Dave?”

“One of the sirens,” Karkat answered. “His name is Dave.”

“Oh,” John said, shocked. “That sounds… really normal actually.”

“They’re not all that special actually,” Karkat said, “They’re just like us.”

“But with tails?” John asked, his face scrunching up as he tried to imagine it.

“You’ll see for yourself soon,” Karat answered. “They want to meet us tomorrow, at lunch when we go down to the bay.”

“Do Jade and Jake know?” John asked, “Have you told them yet?”

“I wanted to get you on my side first,” Karkat said, “God knows this is hard enough as it is.”

“Can we go tell them now?” John asked, nearly jumping up in his excitement. “And Kanaya too?”

“Go get them together and bring them in here,” Karkat said, pinching at the bridge of his nose. He could feel a stress-induced migraine coming on between his temples. “No adults.”

John vanished out of the door before the words had left his tongue. Karkat sighed. It might have been rougher than expected, but at least he had John on his side now. Only two Harley-English’s and a Maryam left. He could do this.

It only took a few minutes before John corralled the rest of the teens back into Karkat and his small shared room. Moonlight was streaming full-force through the large window now, and it cut a square out of the dark floor when Karkat flicked the lights off. 

“I have a migraine,” he snapped when Jade squealed and reached for the switch. “Cut it out.”

Jade guiltily stopped trying to switch on the lights as Jake bounced into the room like there were springs under his heels, Kanaya following stately behind in a green nightdress with a high collar. 

John closed the door behind them, his face a mask of mischievousness and excitement. Only Kanaya had the knowledge to keep her eyes on the trickster and not on the angry Karkat. She’d borne the blunt of enough pranks to know who the real danger in a darkened room was. 

“Greetings,” Karkat said, “This meeting never happened. If you can’t promise to keep this a secret from everyone outside of this room until the day you bite the dust, leave now.” God, the only thing he needed was a flashlight to hold under his chin to finish casting the mood. This was like reading some family bonding scene out of a fucking book. What had his life become?

“Dramatic tonight, Karkat?” Kanaya asked as she sank onto Karkat’s air mattress. “What is going on?”

“Secret things,” Karkat said. “Swear to it.”

“I swear,” Jade said, leaning forward.

“Seconded,” Jake replied. “What japery are we up to tonight?”

“Can I retain my admittance of trust until I have more information?” Kanaya asked, “Karkat, this is sketchy even by your usual means of persuasion.”

“I’m not forcing you to do anything,” Karkat argued. “Just trust me. Nothing I say leaves the five of us.”

She stared closely at him. Kanaya and Karkat shared a similar enough skin and hair tone that they had been mistaken for siblings before. Karkat was secretly pleased when Porrim never corrected the mistake, because to him Kanaya was his sister. They had grown up together, first as neighbors, then as… something. The legal term wasn’t kidnapping or impromptu adoption and it wasn’t like his legal custodian cared enough to sic the cops them when Karkat stopped coming home. Not that Porrim would have backed down from the police.

“Trust you?” Kanaya asked, her gray eyes uncomfortably like her mother’s. She sighed, “I suppose I shall, but if there is any trickery involved I will hold you personally accountable.”

Karkat nodded. The threat was a real one, and he knew Kanaya had a mean undercut and a fast draw. “Thank you,” he said. “Now let’s begin.”

He opened his mouth to start the basic rundown, but John beat him to it in a rush of words. “Karkatisfriendswiththeseseasirensandwereallgoingtomeetthemandbefreindstmorrowandtheyhavetailsan-”

“Shut up John,” Karkat said, “No one can understand you like that.”

“Speak clearly please,” Kanaya asked. 

“What John means is,” Karkat started, “You all know that picnic tomorrow? We’ll be having a few unexpected guests.”

“Sirens,” John gushed, wide-eyed. “Karkat made friends with them and they want to say hi.”

Utter silence. Kanaya rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated noise, but Jade jumped right into the conversation.

“Sirens?” She asked, her green eyes nearly glowing. “Granddad used to talk about sirens all the time!”

“He what?” Karkat said, his voice rising. Could this day get any weirder?

“He said he would see lots of them from the shore when he was growing up,” Jake said, “But then he said they all went away a long time ago.”

“Yeah,” Jade said, growing quieter, “He would tell us stories about them. They were never the good guys though.”

“Granddad warned us to stay away from them, and to never turn our back to the sea.” Jake said, “I reckon he thought they were dangerous.”

This just kept getting better and better. His migraine began to spike as they chattered between themselves, the talk dissolving into arguments.

“But one of them saved Karkat!” John argued, his face lined with indignation as he defended Karkat, “It stopped him from drowning and pulled him out the water. They can’t be bad.”

Could John be right? Or was Jake right? Was Dave dangerous?

Karkat honestly didn’t think so. Not Dave, not with his stupid red eyes that led straight to his soul. That siren couldn’t lie effectively to save his life, and Karkat had a hair-trigger fine sense for potential backstabbers. He never got any kind of negative vibe from him or his sister Rose. 

The siren also had a dozen chances to kill him by now with all the swimming lessons. No, Karkat didn’t think Dave wanted to hurt anyone.

“Kanaya?” Karkat asked, his voice softer than normal. Her gray eyes were tight at the edges and her lips were still pursed.

Kanaya smoothened out her nightdress with one hand, flattening the slight wrinkles. “I’m still not sure that I believe any of this,” she said, “But, if one of these creatures did save you from drowning I don’t think they mean harm. Not that one, at least.”

He nodded at her thankfully.

“But,” she continued, raising one eyebrow. “That does not mean that meeting with them is a good idea.”

“But I want to see them!” Jade said, nearly bouncing like John. “I want to meet the cool fish people too! I don’t care what Granddad says about them. If Karkat is friends with them I trust that they’re not that bad.”  
“I second the idea,” John said quickly. “I’m going to be there tomorrow with Karkat.”

“Blimey, gents,” Jake chipped in, running a hand through his hair. “I hope you’re not counting me out of this. I’ll be right there in the thick of it!”

With Jake that meant Karkat had everyone on his side except one.

Kanaya gave Karkat a pained look, but he knew what she would choose. “Fine,” she sighed. “Someone needs to be the voice of reason. I’ll be there as well,” she decided.

“Good,” Karkat huffed, “Now everyone get the hell out and go to sleep. Remember, if a word of this gets out I’ll deal with the traitor personally and shit my rage all over their desiccated corpse.”

The room broke out into a chorus of giggles. Karkat reminded himself that he was probably the most mature person here on principle alone. Dammit.   
…

 

Morning came with a vengeance, streaking the light across the water and bringing in an influx of ocean life. Dave and his family only been here for about fifteen days and already the seas around the island were thriving. Dave couldn’t help it. Sea life was drawn to sirens. Dave gave off a magic that called to the deep. Water cleared itself of trace pollutants and coral exploded with new growth. In a few months the surrounding reefs would be wildlife hotspots. Everything was bright and vibrant and full of life.

Dave always loved this part. They’d spent so long moving from place to place that he rarely got to witness first-hand the changes they inspired over their environment just from being there. It was a magnificent difference. 

He patted a green turtle on its snout as he swam past. Small fish kept trailing after him and hid in the shadow he cast as he twisted easily through the surf and came back into the bay, pushing aside stems from the floaters as he went. The odd plants were a favorite of his, and they bloomed with flowers bigger than his spread hand.

Dave and Rose managed to sway Roxy over onto their side in two seconds flat. Their sister was a flash of pink scales against the bottom of the bay as she soaked up the sunlight that filtered through the water.  
“Hey Roxy, do you wanna go meet some sweet humans with us?”

That was all it took.

Roxy’s eyes went wide, and a grin stretched itself open across her mouth. “Fucking finally,” she said, “I was wondering which of us would break first.” She flipped over and waved her fins as she stretched luxuriously. “I’ve been barley managing to keep myself off of them.”

“One might have noticed,” Rose said, her voice wry and light hearted. “Your patience has been duly appreciated.”

“For real, we can talk to them?” Roxy asked, her eyes nearly glowing with excitement. He left Rose to fill her in on all the details. He had a bigger fish to catch.

But Dirk was a problem from the start, mainly because he wasn’t fucking there for Dave to get a hold of. His brother had vanished. He did that a lot, but never without a word and never at such an inconvenient time.

“Yeah, he left an hour ago,” Roxy said as she swam up beside him. “He didn’t say when he’d be back.”

Great. Just perfect. “Asshole’s probably just off moping somewhere,” Dave said, slightly pissed. “Or patrolling the entire island for shits and giggles for the hundredth time.”

“You can’t blame him for worrying about us,” Roxy reminded him.

Dave squeezed his eyes shut as his heart gave a sickening lurch. No, Dave couldn’t fault Dirk for that, not when he still dreamed of it. Blood in the water, blood and oil and death on all sides. He still had burn scars down one arm from the day they lost their father. 

“He could have taken me with him then,” Dave said, “He better be back before the humans get here, or he’ll get the surprise of his life and it’ll be his own fucking fault for ditching us.”

Roxy slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide. “Gosh, can you imagine?” she said, “What a nightmare.”

“Let’s avoid that scenario if at all possible,” Rose butted in, “I’ll keep an eye out for him.”

“Thanks,” Dave said, “Let’s just hope everyone gets along.”

He was excited too, but he hid it better than his sisters. Roxy kept trying to fix her hair, running her fingers through the already smooth strands. Dave just kept circling the ruins, sticking to the bottom as he treaded through seaweed and sea pens that brushed against his tail with feather light touches as he passed. He spent a lot of time bothering a sea star. The thorny starfish retreated into a crack at a snail’s pace to escape his probing fingers as the sun crept higher across the sky.

Dirk still wasn’t back. It had been several hours and Karkat and the others could be along at any time now. Time wound itself around him like the faintest breath of a current against his scales. The seconds dragged by.

“No luck,” Rose said when he circled past. “It is almost noon.”

Dave grunted. “It figures.”

“Guys, I see them!” Roxy trilled out, her voice high and clear with joy. “They’re here!”

Abruptly Dave snapped back into control even as the knowledge that Karkat was near pulled at him and drew his chest land-ward. He shook it off. “Alright,” he said, “Keep back until I say so. I need to make sure everything’s alright first.”

“Whatever you say, Dave,” Roxy said, but he knew she didn’t really mean it. The girl was near bursting with contained excitement. Keeping her back was a failed task from the start.

Rose set a hand on his arm before he shot off for the shallower waters of the inner bay. “Do try to give us a good first impression,” she said. 

“I’m so on this shit Rose,” he said, “I’m the king of first-encounter ambassadors. Peixes herself should grant me first-human privileges from my legendary smooth skills with the landwalkers. Bitches be fawning over me left and right.”

“You tend to ramble when you’re nervous,” Rose deadpanned, “Good luck.”

He winked at her before he turned and swam for the shore. He pulled off a tight flip just to release some pent-up energy as he crept into range. He didn’t dare peek above water yet. If Karkat was there he’d show himself soon enough.

It didn’t take long before the human kicked out into the water. Dave could recognize the patterns of his swimming with his eyes closed. Those legs flailing were a dead giveaway as he kicked at the water. Karkat quickly made it out past the shallows, into water that was blue instead of clear. He didn’t go out far enough to fall under the shadow of the ruins.

Dave cautiously swam below, making sure the boy saw him clearly through his goggles before angling to the surface. The last thing he wanted was to give Karkat a heart attack by appearing out of nowhere, no matter how strong the urge to grab the boy by an ankle was, just to hear his reaction.

Karkat stopped swimming and waited for the siren to surface. Dave cleared the water from his lungs. “How’s it going?” he asked.

Karkat rolled his eyes as he treaded water. “They’re all a bunch of over-excited morons,” he said. “I’m almost sorry for my plans to inflict them upon your family, Dave.”

“You can apologize later,” Dave said, “Roxy’s the same way.”

He looked over Karkat’s shoulder, to where the shapes of four other humans crowded the beach. There was no way they hadn’t seen his head sticking out of the calm sea by now, but the instinctive surge of mortal panic didn’t come.

“We never caught Dirk,” he quickly explained, “If he shows up during the middle of this it’ll turn into a clusterfuck, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. So if we mysteriously vanish that’s probably why.”

As much as he didn’t like the idea of Dirk swimming up into the middle of this, he knew it couldn’t stop them now.

“I am going to act like that doesn’t turn my stomach,” Karkat said seriously. “The idea of some psychotic older brother with a human hating complex doesn’t exactly ease my fears of someone getting hurt.”  
“He’s not psychotic,” Dave sighed, “It’s complicated.”

“You say that a lot,” Karkat said, “But I’ll let it slide for now.” A pause stretched between them, heavy with meaning.

Dave swallowed. “So we can do this?” he asked. He could feel Rose swimming beneath him.

“Let’s get this over with,” Karkat said, and he motioned over his shoulder at the others by the shore. “I made them stay back, for obvious reasons.”

“Look out, Rose is coming up,” Dave warned, just before Rose joined him at the surface.

“Greetings,” she said, “Am I right to assume that we’re clear to mingle?”

“Go right ahead,” Karkat said, “Try not to drown anyone thought.”

Rose smiled a saintly smile. “I’ll try not to,” she said, and then Roxy flung herself up to them with a burst of fuchsia enthusiasm. She breached the surface in a showy jump, twisting through the air so that the sun flashed off of her scales before she crashed back down into the water with a splash. He heard someone cheer from the shore.

“You show-off,” Dave complained when she popped up beside them and shook the water from her hair, “That was fucking awesome.”

She grinned at him. “You know it,” Roxy said, then Karkat had her full attention. He bore it well as she scrutinized every inch of his face without blinking. His hair had been soaked from the splash and he looked at her with narrowed eyes. “I’ll race you back to shore,” she offered suddenly, seeming to approve.

“I think the fuck not,” Karkat answered grumpily, but there was no bite in it. “That’s nowhere near a fair challenge.”

“Your loss,” she winked, and then she was off. Rose sighed and went after her.

“One second,” Karkat said, filling his lungs as he drug in air. “It’s alright, you can come in!” He yelled, and Dave saw Jade’s long hair trailing behind her as she ran out to meet them, kicking up sea foam with each step.

They kept back as the sirens and humans began to cautiously near each other, like rival shoals meeting in the open ocean.

“How long has it been?” Karkat asked. “Since you’ve talked to people?”

“Over a year,” Dave answered softly. “We kept away from people for a while, hung out with some other siren families for a few weeks after…” Dave trailed off and looked away, his throat tight. “Let’s not talk about this now.”

“Alright,” Karkat said, “Let’s focus on making it through this lunch first without anyone fighting.”

“Would they try to fight?”

Karkat sighed, “No, but Jake might offer to wrestle and that’s nearly as bad.”

Dave let out a laugh as he slipped underwater. He stayed near as Karkat paddled back to shallower ground. The humans all wanted to talk and were understandably nervous at first about having sirens everywhere, so they kept close to the shore. So far, only Karkat had ventured out past his waist.

It was a shock to see the water cut by feet and bare twiggy legs that kicked up puffs of fine sand. He could hear every splash and gasp of breath they made as he slowly swam into the middle of the human horde. He surfaced once he saw that his sisters were taking care of themselves and met the blue eyes of a buck-toothed boy with black hair.

“So you’re Dave then,” the boy said, blinking as he waded deeper into the surf. He didn’t seem uncomfortable that the red siren was so close. “I’m John.”

“Karkat’s mentioned you,” Dave said as he turned to face the boy, “I guess I have you to thank for dragging him along with you on this vacation.”

“Aw man, it’s nothing, really,” John said eagerly, “I have to thank you as well. For saving Karkat’s life.”

“He told you about that?” Dave asked curiously.

“Yeah, it’s how he proved that, well,” John trailed off sheepishly, “That none of you wanted to eat us or anything horrible like that.”

Well then. He guessed it worked if they were all here. Karkat heard his name and whipped around.

“What the fuck are you two saying about me?” Karkat veered sharply in between the two of them.

“Lies and slander,” John said, “What else?”

Karkat attempted to shove the other boy’s head underwater, sputtering with fake-rage, and behind them Dave heard the golden laughter of Roxy. It hit him, then, what exactly was happening.

Siren/human interactions. The good kind. The kind with laughs and playful splashing and far too many terrible fish puns. The only thing that could have made this moment better was if Dirk were here to share in it.  
…

 

The humans left after a few hours. Karkat promised that he would be back to the bay soon, as did the rest of them. Dave almost couldn’t wait until the next day. He wanted to see Karkat again.

Dirk swam back into the bay right at sunset, when the sky blended in with his scales so he could creep up on them all just like he always did. He said nothing, just looked at the girl’s guilty faces before he pulled Dave aside. “Care to explain why Roxy looks like she swallowed an eel?” He asked.

Roxy shot him a sour look. “I’m not the one green around the gills,” she fired back, “Where the fuck have you been all damn day?” Attack was the best form of defense, and Roxy laid into Dirk like a pro.

Dirk didn’t even shrug the accusations aside. “You’ve been fucking about with the humans, haven’t you?”

Goddammit. 

Dirk just raised a single eyebrow. Rose met his gaze coolly. “Dirk,” She began, “Surely even you’ve noticed that we’re meant to interact with these particular humans,” she said smugly. “Skaia has willed it.”  
She sounded so confident. Rose was brimming with her Seer’s knowledge. Out of all of them, Rose alone would know Skaia’s wishes. All Dave knew was that magic curled warm in his belly when Karkat was near and made everything a bit more bearable. It felt right.

“Skaia is dead,” Dirk said, his voice oddly flat. Dave hadn’t seen him so expressionless in years. “We all saw the island die.”

“You know you’re wrong about that,” Rose challenged, and her eyes glowed with power. They shone with a lavender light, with a magic Dave hadn’t seen in years. The sight took his breath away at the display of power. “The island might have burned, but Skaia isn’t dead. Magic still exists and it wanted this to happen.”

“So they know about us?” Dirk said, unswayed by Rose’s display. He still hadn’t moved from his position, distant and cold. “How many?”

“The five teens,” Roxy said, “None of the adults.”

Dirk scrubbed at his eyes with a clenched fist, “I know we’ve been on our own for a while,” he said, “But humans?” he said, still unreasonably calm, but Dave could read the tension that coiled in his brother’s shoulders. “We can’t trust them.”

“I don’t think we have a choice, Dirk,” Dave said, “They know, they’ve seen us, spoken to us. It’s too late to change that now.”

“Look, I get it,” Dirk said, “We’re all just starting to grow into our magic but here’s the thing - I don’t care if it’s the will of Skaia or not. I don’t give a single fuck. I just don’t want anyone to end up hurt.”  
Dave tried to think of some way to let him know that they weren’t just being hormonal teens dicking around with magic for the first time. His twin beat him to it. 

“We won’t,” Rose reassured him, “I know we’re doing the right thing. I can feel it. I’d see it if we were in danger.”

“No one saw the hunters coming either,” Dirk shot back, and Dave flinched back as the skin on his arm crawled beneath the burn scars. Roxy gasped.

Dirk didn’t have the decency to look guilty about it, though he knew he’d crossed a line. “Look,” Dirk said flatly, “You can fuck around with them all you want, just leave me the hell out of it,” he said, and then he looked away. His orange eyes were strangely dull. Dave’s throat felt tight.

“If you change your mind,” Roxy said, equally as cold as him, “I’m sure they’ll be glad to meet you.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Dirk said.

A colder current brushed a chill all along Dave’s skin as the sun vanished beyond the horizon, but even that paled in comparison to the chill in his brother’s voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is confirmed for the world's most elaborate Stabdad AU. lol. Don't say I didn't warn you
> 
> And Dirk is being problematic but that's to be expected. 
> 
> And yes! They've all met each other-- now the plot can begin


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have a short, fluffy chapter before the Real Shit begins ;)

Karkat made sure to check in at the cove once a day. They couldn’t all manage to sneak out from under Porrim’s keen gaze, but Karkat found it easy to fade into the background once the sun was high and his surrogate guardian was being pulled in four different directions by the others. His feet knew every tree that shaded the trail across the narrowest part of the island from the house on the hill. He could smell the flowers that dripped from the vines in this tropical paradise of an island. It was fairly ridiculous how goddamned lush everything was. Karkat generally took to nature like a cat to water, which meant with a lot of obstinate yelling and thrashing about, but he thought that he could walk this trail blindfolded.

A few days ago the thought of walking some jungle trail alone would have made his skin crawl with apprehension and reluctance, as was common sense. He was no survivalist and the jungle still gave him the creeps no matter how many times Jade and Jake swore it was safe.

But the walk wasn’t long, and it was nice to have some time to himself. Karkat wasn’t used to this 24-7 constant interaction. His legally appointed custodian was rarely at the house and generally didn’t give a shit about him, so outside of school and Kanaya or John’s efforts to force him to interact he was mostly alone. On the island he was subjected to a constant stream of EVERYONE ELSE crammed together and oozing out their collective selves in never-ending streams and he felt like he was suffocating. By the end of the day his head was aching and sore.

He took his time with the walk, carefully setting one foot in front of the other as he convinced himself that a bit of vine over there was a twig, a crooked twig, and not a snake. 

The twig moved and Karkat jumped back, “You sly little fucker,” he said, as if calling the serpent out would make it go away. “I see you there.”

The twig remained unanimated and stick-like. Karkat squinted at it suspiciously from where it lay in the fallen leaves, but it didn’t move again.

Like hell was he staying around to find out if it was a snake or not, fuck that. 

He left the trail to carve a wide circle around the maybe-snake. He’d have to ask Jake about venomous reptiles later. He continued more carefully now, wary of stepping on a fanged landmine. He enjoyed having all of his toes, thank you very much.

It was still a shock when the jungle turned into a beach. He couldn’t hear the waves because of the reef, so when he turned the last corner the forest just suddenly ended and light streamed down in a blinding brilliance. Sand was everywhere way too fucking fast, but that was a battle he’d given up on day fucking zero. 

The sea was still and silent in the bay. He still hadn’t gotten over the fact that Dave and his family breathed water; he still expected to see their heads bobbing above the surface. Aside from the tails and fins and gills and ungodly colored eyes, the sirens were all remarkably human. They were growing on him more every day.

Rose would talk circles around him, which Dave found hilarious. In a battle of wit he could hold no ground with the lavender-eyed twin. Karkat relied on being loud to win most arguments and Rose so outclassed him in both intelligence and skill with words that he had no fucking chance against her. 

Roxy was incredible, to put it plainly. The siren could be quirky, but when it came down to it she was a force of nature. 

The older brother Karkat never saw, which was both infuriating and relieving all at once. He’d rip an explanation from Dave about it sooner than later, because when Karkat asked all the siren gave him was a sad shrug and another “It’s complicated.”

For a mythical creature Dave couldn’t keep a secret for shit. He wouldn’t lie, but he had a way of talking around the problems by going off on some idle tangent that drove Karkat mad because it was so obvious he was trying to hide something. The transparent ploy didn’t work on Karkat. He saw right through the siren with a clarity he found stunning.

How did he get to know Dave so well? When did all of his ticks and gestures become so ingrained that Karkat saw them all as the mask they were? It made his head spin, how fast he fell into whatever clusterfuck their relationship even was. 

Sighing, he walked out along the shelf of rock beside the hot spring until the sandy bottom was just deep enough for his feet to reach. The rocks were slick underfoot when he jumped in after taking a moment to make sure there weren’t any obvious jellyfish or hunting barracuda nearby.

The water was cool enough to bring relief after standing in the blistering sun for so long. He almost didn’t mind the sting of the salt anymore. He’d grown used to it.

The sirens normally stayed much further out on the other side of the weird-ass ruins no one could explain, but Dave must have been waiting for him because he saw the telltale flash of crimson under the surface.

Karkat balanced on his toes while he waited for Dave to clear his throat. Again it was another siren thing that he was getting used to, but it didn’t freak him out or anything. He was under no illusions that Dave or any of them were human.

“Sup,” Dave said. The siren rolled over in the water and put his hands behind his head. He floated like it was nothing, the picture of ease. Like this all Karkat could see was how long his muscular tail was. The slits at his sides were open lazily as he drifted.

“Floating should not be that easy for you,” Karkat said, complaining. “I had to nearly fucking die before I figured it out.”

“Naw man, floating is like the easiest thing ever,” Dave argued, still stretched out. “It’s not my fault that you suck at swimming.”

“Well sorry I’m not a half-fish fucker,” Karkat snapped, “My human lungs like air and my legs get tired will you let it fucking go?”

“Not yet,” Dave answered smugly, “It’s too easy to rile you up about.”

“You’re a horse’s ass,” Karkat said lightly, falling easily into the banter, “And I hope a whale eats you.”

“It’s obvious you know nothing about whales,” Dave said, his tail shifting slightly to keep him near Karkat. “Whales are the best things in the entire ocean. Me and whales are best bros. They’re fucking awesome and they don’t eat people.”

Karkat scoffed at him and retreated to shallower water. Being neck-deep all the time was annoying and pointless. Dave followed after him, but hung back reluctantly the closer Karkat ventured to the shore. 

“What?” He asked, “It’s not that shallow here.” The water came up to his mid thighs, and he wasn’t short enough for the depth to be a challenge.

The siren rolled back over onto his chest. His face was uneasy and he didn’t come any closer. “It’s not about how shallow it is,” Dave said, “It’s about how close to the shore you are.”

Karkat raised an eyebrow at him skeptically. “If you’re enough of a dumbass to beach yourself I’ll just drag your ass back in here,” he promised.

“You won’t need to,” Dave said seriously. “I can’t touch dry land.” 

Karkat waited for an explanation. The siren ducked back underwater and cautiously crept closer, but he still didn’t come close enough to talk comfortably.

“Are you going to explain or…” Karkat prompted, but he was already moving back into deeper water.

“No siren can leave the sea,” Dave said, his voice just above a whisper. “If I touch the shore… I’ll die.”

_What the fuck?_

“What, really?” Karkat asked worriedly. “That makes no sense.”

“It’s a magic thing,” Dave answered, and he shivered in the cool water. “To leave the sea is to reject it, and without the sea we are nothing. I’d probably die nigh-instantaneously, but if I don’t I’ll get cursed with the worse curse you can imagine. Magic can be a bitch.”

“What kind of curse?” Karkat asked curiously.

“A curse bigger than every whale in all the seas combined, all crashing down on my head all at once. Not many survive it and honestly I’d rather just die.”

It couldn't be that bad, could it? "Yeah that sounds pretty shitty,” Karkat said, his mind still reeling. Curse? As much as he wanted to believe that was bullshit and Dave was just fucking with him, he saw a real fear in the siren’s eyes.

“So no, I’m not afraid of shallow water,” Dave said, “I just manage a healthy fear of being rejected and cut off from everything I know before dying in the most painful way imaginable, so really that’s just common sense.”

“Shit, Dave,” Karkat said, still paddling in place. “That’s fucking messed up.”

“Kind of,” Dave said, “But at the same time, I kind of get it? It’s hard to explain.”

“Magic sounds awful and out to get you,” Karkat said, making up his mind. “Why the fuck does a curse like that even exist?”

“Shhh,” Dave said suddenly, and his head tilted as he whipped around in the water and faced the ruins. “Something’s coming up to us, something big.”

“How the fuck would you even know?” Karkat grumbled at the subject change.

“I can feel it,” Dave said.

“More fucking magic shit?” Karkat asked sarcastically.

“Nope,” Dave said, wiggling his pale eyebrows. “I can feel it swimming with my fishy senses.”

“You’re such a fucking piss--oh my God _what the fuck is that!_ ” Karkat ended in a near screech as a dark shape slunk its way through the water at them. Karkat had crept back out until the water reached the bottom of his ribs, and now he felt stranded. He could recognize that sleek profile anywhere.

“Tiger shark,” Dave said, like it wasn't even a big deal. “Big fucking tiger shark actually.”

The distinctive dorsal fin broke the surface like a final fuck you. Holy shit. Karkat was only a few yards away from the biggest animal he’d ever seen in his life and he was well on his way to freaking the fuck out about it. This thing could eat both of them. There wouldn’t even be pieces left. 

“Wait,” Dave said as Karkat took a step back from the approaching beast. The siren didn’t seem that bothered by the fact that a fifteen foot long top-tier ocean predator was cruising up to them. “It’s not dangerous.”

“Like hell it isn’t!” Karkat was nearly wheezing. His heart was pounding. The shark was close enough now that he could see the jut of its pectoral fins and see the striping along the top of its barrel shaped body that mixed with the dappled sunlight. For its sheer size it was surprisingly graceful to watch, if he wasn’t in danger of becoming a light snack. 

“Do you trust me?” Dave asked suddenly, his red eyes lighting up with excitement. “I can show you that magic isn’t all bad.”

Oh hell, what was he planning? Something sketchy and dangerous, for sure. “What do you mean?”

“Do you trust me?” Dave asked again, and Karkat nearly forgot the shark altogether when he stared into Dave’s eyes. They were earnest and clear, deep enough to drown in. His heart jolted, banging hard against his ribcage.

Did Karkat trust the siren? Would he risk getting eaten by a shark because of it? What was the risk here? 

“I do,” Karkat answered, because fuck it, he did trust Dave. He didn’t know why, but he did. 

The siren slid closer to put himself between Karkat and the shark as he angled backwards until he was level with the human. The shark’s massive head swung towards them at the movement and Karkat saw the glint of teeth even from here. Jesus fucking Christ.

He couldn’t stop himself from leaning into Dave when he felt the siren next to him. The shift was automatic and oddly comforting. The siren’s shoulder was solid and he felt the brush of scales at his hip.

Dave opened his mouth, and a sound poured out as the siren sang with the noise of waves retreating off the sand after breaking. It was low and soft, and it billowed around them in waves. Karkat felt something electric, a dizzying wave as the feeling of it washed over him.

Magic. 

The shark’s advance froze as its head turned. The shark circled out in a slow sweep before it cruised in for a curious brush-by pass. The tiger shark was an arm’s length away. Karkat could feel the displaced water from the beat of its tail. Dave gently took Karkat’s hand and held it out before them as the shark swam by.

With a wonder he didn’t know he could feel, Karkat set his hand against the shark’s side. He felt no danger. All his fear had evaporated. He felt safe and secure, and underneath his fingers the shark’s scales were smooth as glass as they slipped under his palm. Dave was still singing softly in his ear as the shark swam by with the entire expanse of its side exposed to them. He never imagined that a shark would feel so smooth to the touch. The great tail brushed against his forearm with a powerful stroke as it turned away and retreated back into the depths of the bay like a shadow brought to life.

Dave stopped singing and the entire world rushed back into place around Karkat with a snap. Holy shitflinching FUCK. His heart was going a hundred miles an hour, adrenaline was surging. He felt high and lightheaded as he pulled his arm back to his chest. His fingers tingled with the echo of slick scales as he realized how close Dave still was.

“Holy fuck,” Karkat breathed, “Did I just pet a fucking shark?”

“Yes, that is a thing that just happened,” Dave answered smugly, “I think she liked you.”

Karkat was going to have an aneurysm. He turned his head and Dave was right there, his face not three inches away. A small smile played about his lips, which Karkat could not stop staring at. He didn’t even stop to think about it as he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Dave’s mouth.

Everything in all of existence crashed to a halt. 

Holy shit, what had he _done_?

Dave froze as Karkat’s elation curdled like spoiled milk, then Dave melted at the touch, his form curling closer. Karkat tasted salt on his tongue as everything clicked into place. This was right. This was good, and the way Dave was tentatively leaning into the kiss made everything not so fucking insane for a second until his actions caught up to him with a punch to the gut.

He was kissing Dave. Dave was kissing him back. He froze as a million and one thoughts crowded into his head at once.

“Are you alright?” Dave asked, drawing back to stare at him. “You’re kind of freaking out, fuck, did I do that?” The siren was still too close and too red and too Dave and too magic. Fucking magic. Fucking sirens. Fucking fuck fucker’s fucked fucking fuck. 

“No, sorry,” Karkat forced out, “Just give me a second. I feel like my head’s going to fly off.”

Dave let out a breathless laugh as he drifted back. The lack of skin-on-skin contact helped clear Karkat’s head just enough to know that already he missed the feeling of having Dave so near. 

He was _so fucked_.

“So,” Karkat choked out, “Magic is real.”

“Magic is real,” Dave assured him.

“And I kissed you,” Karkat stated, just for the record.

“You did,” Dave said, a shit-eating grin creeping over his face. Karkat could feel himself blushing madly. “I kissed you back.” The siren said.

That lifted a knot of worry from his heart. At least Dave wasn’t offended or disgusted, though his face was just as red as Karkat’s.

“Was that alright?” Karkat asked cautiously, just daring to hope with a feeling he could see mirrored in Dave’s crystal red eyes. They really were beautiful. Deep and crimson, a shade so unique to the red siren that it just screamed DAVE to Karkat.

“It depends,” Dave said, “Do you want to kiss me again?”

Karkat took a moment to think about it. To seriously think about it, but he had already stepped over that particular edge. There was no going back now. “Yes.”

It felt more real this time. Now he could think above the collective screaming that was his sub-consciousness and take in the details of the moment. Dave’s lips were soft and warm, and the siren shifted closer when Karkat’s hand crept up to circle around the back of his neck to tangle in his pale hair.

It didn’t feel as weird as it should have. Kissing Dave was something that felt so familiar to Karkat. It was as easy as breathing and as endless as the ocean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fucking fuck fucked fuck's fucking fuck. What a glorious sentence to use in a story.
> 
> Like i said, its a light fluffy chapter before the Real Shit begins. I feel almost like its unfair to start off so slow and light when this is actually a really heavy, serious story with lots of action and extremely high stakes. All of that starts to happen next. This is the end of my old work. Everything from here on out is either new or was heavily edited. 
> 
> Let's go. ;)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK I miscounted. THIS is actually the last of my old work, sorry guys. Somehow I got off by a chapter and lost count of where I was. The next chapter will begin my new work and ill be four times as long as the other chapters leading up to it.

Karkat stumbled back up to the house in a daze. Everyone was out front near Jade’s overgrown pumpkin patch and he couldn’t sneak by them unseen, especially when Porrim called him over with a short wave.

“Karkat,” she said, and John whooped in the background as Bec trotted back to him with a snort, the world’s largest branch held in his teeth. The dog’s white tail was waving from side to side. 

“What kind of dipshittery are they up to now?” Karkat asked grumpily to throw the attention off of himself. His lips felt very red and obvious in a way that screamed he’d just spent the last hour having a sloppy inter-species make out with a mythical creature. 

Porrim quirked up a single eyebrow. It made her older face look so much like Kanaya’s that Karkat nearly winced. “I believe that they are having a contest to see which of them Bec likes the most.”

“How?” Karkat asked, his voice quieter now that he’d been given _The Look_.

“They think if they all throw an object for Bec to fetch, whichever one he chose to retrieve belongs to the person he likes the best.” Porrim said. 

“That’s a dumb question,” Karkat argued. “The answer is clearly Jade.”

Porrim tilted her head at him kindly. “Yes, but Jake does not want to admit it.”

That sounded about right. That white devilbeast was entirely devoted to Jade and Jade alone. The fact didn’t stop Jake from constantly trying to woo the dog over to him every chance he had.

“I am much more interested in where you keep sneaking off to on your own,” Porrim inquired casually. She stepped back and pulled up two of the wooden chairs and offered one to him. “Sit.” It was not a request.

Karkat plopped down in the chair with a huff. “You caught me,” he said. Trying to lie to Porrim was a failed battle from the start. She only brought up these subjects when she was sure she had enough facts in her pocket to back up her questions and only asked what she already knew the answer to.

“And?” She prompted as she sat back into her chair like it was a throne. She looked so regal. Out here the stress had melted off from around her eyes and her skin had soaked in the sun until it glowed with renewed vigor. He had to tread carefully here.

“I like hiking the island,” he offered her a half-truth. “Sometimes I just feel overwhelmed inside the house and need to get away for a little.”

Porrim’s gaze softened and Karkat felt sick for manipulating her like this. He owed Porrim everything and here he was, using her emotions like a plaything.

“Oh, Karkat,” she breathed, reaching out and taking his hand. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t realized how uncomfortable you were. I should have noticed sooner.”

Karkat’s guilt made him brush her hand away. “It’s fine,” he said, “I’m getting used to it still is all. Their family is a little overwhelming sometimes, but I can handle it.” He had struggled for years for her to see him as something other than the lonely and abandoned child she took under her wing years ago, but he knew that her image of him hadn’t changed with time. In her eyes he’d always be some nine year old kid sitting on the curb with a busted up face and a chip on his shoulder.

Her own face was still worried.

“I like Jade and Jake alright,” Karkat said, “And I still have John and Kanaya. I’ll be okay,” he said.

“I still don’t like the idea of you wandering off on your own,” Porrim fretted, “What if something were to happen to you?” She knew just as well as Karkat did how unsuited he was for nature and hiking and jungles.

“Then Jade can get Bec to track me down,” he answered. “I’m not doing anything dangerous or stupid, just walking around,” he said, and he remembered the shark from earlier and felt another flash of guilt that he hoped Porrim couldn’t read from his face.

“Alright,” Porrim smiled and nodded at him, her eyes gentle and calm. “I’ll try not to fuss over you.” She tugged her fingers through his tangled hair affectionately, then paused when she felt how damp the dark strands were. “Have you been swimming?”

“A little,” Karkat admitted, “Just to cool off.”

A sound from the ruckus in front of them pulled Porrim’s keen face away from him. 

“Karkat!” John called out, “Karkat, help!” Bec had tackled the other boy and was attempting to lick him to death. Dog slobber was going everywhere and John couldn’t breathe for laughing. Jade tried to tug the dog away but was likewise tackled. Black hair and white fur mixed into an incomprehensible tangle of flailing limbs and giggling.

Karkat rolled his eyes as he rose from the chair and accepted his fate. He was doomed to a death by an over-enthusiastic dog that probably weighed more than he did. The things he did for his friends…

Karkat intercepted the dog as best he could and took a pair of muddy paws to the chest for his efforts. The breath whooshed out of him as Bec knocked him down and went in for his face. Karkat saw those slobbery jaws open, teeth shining, before a tongue caught him squarely across the face and _licked_.

He made a noise of rage and tried to shove the dog off of him, but Bec held him down. The dog’s nose was working overtime, sniffing every inch of Karkat’s chest and neck once its initial lick attack ended. His skin felt slimy and there was grass in his mouth. He sat the scraps of grass out and growled at the dog in mock-aggression. 

Bec whined pitifully and pawed at him, still sniffing like Karkat was the most interesting thing he had ever smelled before.

Shit, could the dog detect Dave on him? Could it smell the siren? “Okay Jade, a little help here?” Karkat said, still breathless, “Someone get this overgrown mutt off of me.”

Jade buried her hands in the loose skin at the dog’s neck and John grabbed one of Karkat’s shoulders to drag him out from under Bec’s paws. He came free, his shirt a mess of grass and mud and white fur. Jade was nearly bent over in two from her laughter and John had this obstinately blank expression, but Karkat could see him cracking as a smile chipped itself free.

“Oh my God, Karkat, your face!” Jade giggled.

“You two are despicable,” Karkat said, and he pulled himself upright to his full 5’ 6” height to glower down at the pair of them, picking white fur off of his shirt. It didn’t help that they were both taller than him, but he got the message across.

Bec was still sniffing at his knees, his ears alert and his tail held high. The dog definitely smelled the siren on him. From the side, Porrim watched with unreadable eyes.

“Okay that’s enough lunacy for one afternoon,” Karkat breathed out heavily, his heart pounding, “I’m done with both of you ungrateful idiots.”

“Aw Karkat, Bec didn’t mean to mess up your shirt,” Jade said, hugging the dog tightly. “He’s sorry.”

The dog didn’t look sorry in the least. If anything, Karkat thought if Jade took her hands off the dog Bec would knock him over again. He needed to shower, to wash off Dave’s scent.

He retreated inside. He could only take so much embarrassment at once without exploding. John followed after him, scuffing his feet along the floor.

“Hey, Karkat,” he asked, ducking his head down as he shot a suspicious glance down the narrow hall, “Do you think Bec smelled one of the sirens on you?”

“Duh,” Karkat said, “You’re skills of deduction are astounding, John. Sherlock would weep with shame compared to your highly refined skills of observation.”

“No shit, dipshit, I just think it’s weird,” John said, his eye ticking behind his glasses. “He’s never acted like that around you before, or any of us.”

Karkat opened the door to their shared room and pulled off his soiled shirt. “I call the shower,” he said.

“Fine by me,” John said as he flopped down onto his air mattress. “How were they today?”

“Good, as usual,” Karkat answered while he scrunched around for a clean pair of shorts. His breath caught and prompted him to speak. “Hey John?” He said, his voice twisting slightly. “Magic is real.”

Now it was John’s turn to roll his eyes. “I thought we went over this already?” he said, “Sirens exist and they have tails and gills and magic is real.”

“But I never really thought more into it that that,” Karkat said, “Did you?”

“What do you mean?” John asked, his face scrunching up between his eyes as he peered at Karkat.

“What’s the one thing that sirens are known for in movies and legends and shit like that?” Karkat asked.

John didn’t even have to pause before he answered. “Sirens sing,” he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Maybe Karkat was just a dense moron. Of fucking course sirens sang. That kind of crap was exactly what he would have expected from such a bullshit magic system anyway. He should honesty just stop being surprised by shit like this by now. It was getting kind of redundant. 

“Why?” John asked curiously. His blue eyes were clever and mischievous in the way only John could be. 

“Apparently there’s all types of weird magic shit about them that I had no idea about,” Karkat said, and the true topic of this conversation was pressing at him but he didn’t even know how to begin to word it.  
“Are you surprised by that?” John said, “Dude, they live alone underwater and eat clams and things. Of course they have weird magic.” John scrutinized Karkat’s back as he dug through his suitcase for a towel. “Dave used magic on you today, didn’t he?” The other boy sounded way too smug, like he knew something Karkat didn’t.

Karkat whipped around and narrowed his eyes at John. “No, he did not,” Karkat said, “he used it on a massive fucking shark.”

John’s expression didn’t change. “And?”

“And it was kind of great I guess?” Karkat admitted slowly. “Like he stopped it from eating us.”

And the siren also turned the tiger shark into a fucking kitten. Like he opened his mouth and started singing and called over a massive animal and Karkat petted it like a dumbass. It suddenly hit him that Dave was a glittery Disney Princess in every way. Magic singing? Check. Making friends with the animal kingdom? Check. Literal jewel eyes and fish tail? _Double fucking check_.

Karkat felt like screaming. Did this make him the damsel in distress? His life was a mess.

John was watching him closely. “Are you okay?” He asked.

“I’m fine,” Karkat wheezed out, “perfectly fine.”

John scowled at him and started tapping his foot against the floor. “Karkat, what is it?” He asked. “Something is bothering you.”

No, it wasn’t bothering him. He just didn’t know what to think. For once in his life Karkat Vantas had nothing to say. The words just wouldn’t come out. Now that he was away from the ocean and out of everyone else’s sight he was coming apart. John was still in the room but that didn’t matter. John had always been there for Karkat.

“Did Dave do something to you?” John asked worriedly, just the faintest hint of anger stirring in his normally nonchalant voice. 

“NO!” Karkat nearly squeaked, and John smiled with a sudden, horrible insight.

“You like him, don’t you?” John asked seriously.

“WHAT THE ACTUafffukkc-” he struggled to control his volume, seething. “How the fuck did you know?”

John just winked smugly at him. “Karkat, I know you better than anyone,” he said, “And you’ve barely managed to hide it from the others, but I can tell. You spend all your time with him and you have these little hearts floating in your eyes whenever someone brings him up.”

“I DO NOT,” Karkat hissed, “Little hearts my ass, you smug shit-eating—”

“So you don’t like him?” John asked, and Karkat froze, his mouth open. “Bummer,” John smirked, “I think he likes you.”

Karkat couldn’t think. There were only two reactions to this- start screaming senselessly and let the madness have him, or believe John. John, his best friend since forever. John, the only one who truly understood him.

Fucking hell, John was the best fucking friend anyone could ever ask for. “I’ve been an idiot haven’t I?” Karkat asked, his rage draining away. He just felt tired, but a weight was lifted from him. He ground his palms into his tired eyes. “Was it that obvious?”

“Maybe not to the others,” John said, “But yeah, kinda.”

“Fuck,” Karkat said, admitting the deed. “I kind of kissed him.”

The smile on John’s face was blinding. “And?” He prompted eagerly, sitting on the very edge of the mattress. 

“I think he likes me too?” Karkat said slowly. John threw a clean towel at him as he cackled excitedly. 

“Shut the fuck up,” Karkat said desperately. What if someone heard?

“You’re hopeless,” John lamented, “Alone on a deserted island in the middle of the fucking ocean, and somehow you find someone who likes you? That’s just unfair. I’m related to everyone here but you and the Maryams!” John dissolved into glee, and some part of Karkat felt much better. Calmer. “Come here,” John said, and he scooted back on the mattress to make room for Karkat. “This is a mandatory feelings jam. No excuses.”

“You are suck a dork,” Karkat said, but he sat next to John. His knees felt shaky with sheer relief. “Now what?”

“Do you like him?” John asked.

“I do,” Karkat sighed. “Fucking hell John, I do.”

“Does he like you back?”

“I think so,” Karkat said slowly, a lazy grin creeping onto his face at the memory that he couldn’t hold back. Dave was such a good kisser. “He kissed me back.”

John wrapped his arms around Karkat’s shoulders and hugged him tightly. Stunned, Karkat patted John’s hair awkwardly. His throat felt tight.

“Thank goodness,” John said, “Karkat, I’m so happy for you.”

“I…what?”

John released him. “You smell like the ocean and wet dog,” he commented.

“Fuck you,” Karkat said incredulously, “Care to explain?”

“Karkat,” John deadpanned, “Why do you think I invited you on this vacation with me?”

“To keep your ass in line,” Karkat answered immediately, “Your dad couldn’t get off work and you needed a guardian, Porrim stepped up, and I was roped along to make sure the three of you didn’t go wild-child through the trees.”

“Kanaya could have done that,” John said, and Karkat scoffed.

“Really?” Karkat said, “I know you better than her.”

“Exactly,” John said, “Karkat, you are my best friend and I know that if I fucked off with Kanaya to the other side of the globe you would have sat alone in the dark all summer stewing in your own misery.”

“I resent that,” Karkat defended himself, “I—”

“No, wait,” John said, raising a hand, “I’m not finished yet.”

Karkat restrained himself from having another anger outburst, because this was John and John could ask for things like that from him and not get his head ripped off out of hand.

“Karkat,” John said, “You haven’t been happy in years and it’s been driving all of us crazy!” John ran a hand through his hair, his expression intense and serious. It was rare that John wore that expression, and the sight of it twisted in Karkat’s heart. “Porrim and Kanaya and I try our best with you, but this vacation was the chance to get away from everything, and to get to know Jake and Jade before they start senior year with us back in the States. Did you really think there was a chance in hell that Porrim would have left you behind?”

Karkat realized that he was even more of an idiot than he had originally thought. This whole time he thought this vacation had been for John, not for him. He thought he was just lucky enough to get to tag along like a stray cat some kind-hearted lady had fed one too many times and found permanently glued to her leg, shedding fur and fleas over everything she loved at the slightest hint of affection.

“And,” John continued, “I can tell how you’ve changed just in the short time you’ve known Dave,” John said. “You’re more active and engaging, and you don’t have such a massive stick up your ass as normal. Shoosh,” he said, cutting off Karkat before he could start. “It’s not that you were miserable before, but you were just so worn down. You took all of our problems, like me and Vriska or Porrim when she lost her job, and you put them on your shoulders and tried to take it all on yourself because that’s what you always do and it wore you down. It didn’t even matter that you had nothing to do with any of it— You just tried to shoulder everything all on your own and you wouldn’t let any of us help you.”

“That’s, that’s not fucking correct and you know it,” Karkat said weakly.

“Shut up for once! Dammit Karkat, I’m trying to have a heart-to-heart with you,” John complained as he took a deep breath. “You weren’t sleeping. You barely ate. You were wound so tight I thought if one more thing went wrong and you took it on yourself you’d just… break. Kanaya was nearly out of her mind with worry over you.”

“You fuckers ganged up on me?” Karkat asked incredulously.

“Hell yes,” John answered. “Someone had to save you from yourself, you selfless overprotective asshole!”

The words sunk in slowly, but when they did it was with a bang. “God,” Karkat said, staring at the floor. “I fucked up, didn’t I?”

“No, you didn’t,” John said tiredly. His blue eyes were gleaming in the half-light. “You were just doing the best you could. That’s what we all were doing. This vacation was a way to drag you out away from it for some forced relaxation.”

Just when Karkat thought he couldn’t love Porrim and Kanaya and John any more than he already did, they go and pull some shit like this. And he’d fallen for it like a sucker, hook, line, and sinker. “Did Jade and Jake know?” Karkat asked.

“No, they had no idea,” John said, “We thought it would be better like that.”

“Good,” Karkat said, and then he pulled John back in for another hug. He buried his face against John’s shoulder like they were small children again. “I guess I should thank you,” he said, “For not letting me be an idiot.”

“The biggest idiot,” John agreed, squeezing him until his ribs creaked.

Karkat freed himself before John broke something and swallowed past the pain in his throat that he wouldn’t let show in his face.

“Now go shower,” John ordered, “You still smell like shit.”

Karkat flipped him off casually as he left the room and shut the door behind him. Outside, the palm trees swayed in the sea breeze and the stars shone overhead. He stood outside the door and pressed a hand against his face as he drew in a shaking breath. His chest felt so light and he couldn’t help the smile that broke across his face.

Karkat had John’s words in his heart and the memory of Dave’s lips on his. 

John was the best friend ever, and finally everything seemed like it would be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> John being best friend is a role I will fight for


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok THIS is the real start of the new work. A such, its twice as long, twice as good, and twice as full of utter plot bullshit as before
> 
>  
> 
> Let's GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The door creaked open and Karkat jolted awake without a sound or movement. All of his senses were on full-alert, the response ingrained in him from a thousand nights where Slick drug his ass back to the house at whatever early hour with some other piss-pour excuse ready on his tongue.

Karkat could hear John breathing quietly from his bed, and he creaked a single eye open. He felt a presence watching him and his skin crawled with a silent warning. Then he heard the sound of nails clicking against the wooden floor and he let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

Bec.

The dog must have pushed the door open. No sooner had the thought registered than Karkat felt a large and furry weight descend on him all at once as the dog jumped up onto the bed and landed squarely on top of him.

Karkat began flailing on reflex, a strangled scream bursting from him.

“Karkat? Karkat what is it?” John jumped awake at the sound, and Karkat screeched at him from under the mound of dog on his chest.

“GET THIS THING OFF ME!” Karkat yelled, and Bec buried his nose against Karkat’s neck, his massive paws at the boy’s shoulders.

The lights flicked on without warning, and a sharp whistle rang out. Everyone froze, dog included.

A figure stood imposingly in the doorway, his cane in hand. Bec slunk reluctantly off of Karkat’s chest at Mr. Harley’s call and went to stand at the man’s side.

“What ruckus is afoot in here?” The old man asked, dressed in his normal formal wear despite the early hour. 

“That hellspawn attacked me,” Karkat pouted, every trace of sleep torn form him as he squinted against the sudden brightness. 

“What? Halley? No sirree,” Grandpa Harley said, “Bec’s a good dog. Been with the family for years.” He set a hand on top of the dog’s head, but its eyes were still locked firmly on Karkat. The old man considered the dog at his side with a wistful gaze. “Bec seems keen on you for somehow or another.”

“I must have brushed against something smelly in the trees,” Karkat deadpanned as a warning trickled through him.

“Hmmm, mayhaps,” Grandpa Harley said. “You been near the shore today, boy?”

John let out a nervous laugh that had Karkat’s teeth grinding together. “What, Karkat? No, he hates the ocean.” He was trying too hard to come off as nonchalant and ended up somewhere between petrified and hyper as fuck. 

“Whatever,” Karkat muttered, shrugging off the attention. “I’m going back to bed.” He rolled over and shoved his head back beneath the mound of carefully cultivated pillows.

“Night, Mr. Harley,” John said.

“Good night to you too, boys,” the old man said, and Karkat heard the door swing closed.

“Shhh,” Karkat warned before John could open his mouth. “Not now.” He had the suspicion that they were still being listened too. He heard the click of nails as Bec wandered back down the hall, but not the footsteps of an aging man with a waistcoat and cane. The man moved like a ghost. It was highly suspicious.

John got the point and quieted down. Karkat put the incident as far out of his mind as he could, but sleep didn’t find him again until after the sun was in the sky.

...

 

Jade woke him by flinging open the door with an excited shout. “Wake up, guys! It’s time to get up!”

For a narcoleptic it was amazing how much of an early riser Jade could be when she set her mind to it. Karkat just groaned and huddled deeper into his bedding. 

John sat up with bleary eyes as he reached for his glasses. “W’time’s it?”

“It’s nearly six,” Jade answered happily, “Did you think I would let the two of you sleep the morning away?” Her mutt trotted in beside her, not a trace of the alert animal he had been last night showing in the fluffy dog.

Karkat scowled but resigned himself to being awake. 

“Great!” Jade said, “I have so much fun stuff planned for us today.”

“That sound’s awesome,” John said, already wide awake, the bastard. “Like what?”

“Fishing!” Jade said, “Granddad is taking us out in his boat.”

The very memory of the last time Karkat had been in a boat made his stomach curl and sour. For a second the stationary bed rocked beneath him like a wave. “No thanks,” he said, already feeling sick. “Boats and I don’t mix.”

“He gets seasick,” John explained. 

“We’re not going that far out,” Jade pleaded, “It’s only a little boat.”

Kanaya appeared in the doorway, her hair already styled for the day and a pair of sunglasses around her neck. “I hope you do not plan on keeping my mother waiting,” she said. “Porrim expressed a great deal of interest in going out with everyone today.” She stepped into the room and handed Karkat an orange bottle. “For motion sickness,” she said.

“Thanks,” he said gratefully, and he dry-swallowed two of the small pills while John made a face at him for it.

“Dude, no,” John said, “That’s disgusting.”

Karkat ignored him and drug himself off in search of coffee. If he was going to be stuck on a boat he needed a proper amount of caffeine in his system to avoid jumping overboard and swimming to shore.

“I don’t think I’ve been fishing before,” Kanaya told Jade. “What exactly will be expected of us?”

“Oh, nothing much,” Jade said, waving away Kanaya’s worries. “Grandpa just likes to ride around the island and talk a lot. You won’t be forced to fish if you don’t want to.”

“Could we catch anything?” John asked. “Actual fish?”

Karkat bee lined for the coffee pot and inhaled its warm aroma. Porrim must have started it earlier and he poured himself a mug of black coffee. He busied himself with the mug for a moment before he turned around.

Mr. Harley sat at the small table, polishing a long rifle. Several of the rifle’s components were scattered around him on the tablecloth and he crunched thoughtfully on a slice of toast as he worked. Porrim was packing a large wicker bag with lunches for all of them, a green sundress dangling off her shoulders and a wide hat shading her face.

“There’s everyone,” Jake said as he bounced to his feet. “I’ve readied the boat for us.”

They headed out all in a group, Karkat still clutching his coffee mug for strength. Mr. Harley cut an impressive figure at the helm of his boat as the engine growled to life under his hands. With everyone plus a dog crowded into the skiff there was barely room to move around.

Karkat had to admit it wasn’t half bad. The boat kept a slow, steady pace and the waves were so small that they didn’t rock the boat enough to make him sick. Hellmurder Island looked different from out here, a backdrop of green and brown against a cyan sea. The mountainous northern end rose up into the steep peak of the volcano. Nothing green grew around the cinder cone’s summit, a fact that reminded him of the heat that seeped from the underground lava tubes at the hot spring.

“How sure are you that the volcano isn’t going to pull a Pompeii and murder us all?” Karkat asked Jake as he craned his neck back to stare at the peak. 

The teen was readying the sails as the engine cut off. Jake hauled the heavy ropes into place with ease as he clambered nimbly through the rigging. “The volcano?” He asked, wiping sweat from his brow as he looked up at it. “She is like a fine lady, Granddad always said,” Jake told him. “Not that our tastes in women fair much the same I’m afraid. Beautiful to look at, but explosive when mistreated.” Jake winked at him. “A wonder, isn’t she?”

“Does the mount have a name?” Kanaya asked curiously.

“Hellmurder, after the island,” Jake said. “Granddad named them both when he discovered this place.” He grinned, showing a slight overbite that reminded him of John. “Back then the volcano was more active and the jungle not so tame. Man, the things I’d give to see those golden days!”

“The golden days, did I hear?” Mr. Harley yelled over the whine of the ship’s engines, “Those were the times, golly in heaven! What days they were.”

“Can you tell us how you found the island again?” Jake asked excitedly, “I love that story.”

“It was a blister of a day,” Grandpa Harley began, his hands still at the helm as the breeze filled the white sails overhead. “Hot as hades. I was aboard the explorer vessel the _Peregrine Mendicant_ , a fine stout ship that a man felt the pride of the sea aboard.”

Karkat listened closely to the story as Jake started unraveling fishing line, his fingers deftly unlooping knots and snarls in a way that spoke of years of practice. The boy didn’t even have to glance down at the knots to untie them as he listened to his grandfather.

“Not that the _Mendicant_ was so spiffy at the time,” Grandpa Harley chuckled to himself, “We’d run amok in the most foul storms to rock the horizon. We lost both engines in a squall and were set adrift like flotsam. Three weeks we drifted, just a scant dozen hardened explorers and our wits at survival on the high sea. Best damn days of my life,” he said fondly. “Just when the water ran out our navigator took a touch too much sun to the head and said he’d been hearing things. We pitied him, but none could chart the stars like he could. Give the man a pen and a clear night and he’d have us pinned to the inch. Anyhows, he said he’d heard these voices singing at him, and he charted us a path from that. With nothing else to do, we followed his maps and by thunder if this island didn’t leap out of the gloom at us!” 

Granddad said, scratching at the gray whiskers on his weathered face. “She was a godsend. We refilled our water here and were able to make enough repairs to get one engine back running. It was a joke to name her Hellmurder; she’s certainly saved our skins, but then the navigator went missing just fore we shoved off. Never did find the bastard, poor soul. He was sun-touched, still mumbling about the songs he heard. We had to tie him to the mast to keep him on deck, but he must have made real slick and slipped us. Never saw him again, and the name stuck.”

Hair rose at the back of Karkat’s neck. Singing. 

“Why did you choose to return to the place you’d been shipwrecked at?” Porrim asked curiously.

“Shipwrecked? Who said anything about shipwrecked?” Harley joked. “I’d spent years traveling the globe on my adventures. It’s hard to find a place left undiscovered like this island was. Completely untouched by man. After that I kept getting drawn back here, eventually I built the house and settled in.” He said, “It’s a good place, both old and young all at once, yet wild enough to keep me sharp. Can’t ask for a better place if the whole earth was lotteried away and me left holding the winning ticket.”

“Wild how?” Karkat asked, probing lightly for information.

“The currents around the reef are treacherous and unnavigable,” Harley said, “The lava tubes can collapse without warning and eat the earth in scoops. There’s snakes here never seen elsewhere,” he said, and a breeze sprung up and trailed across the open sails with a flutter. “Then there’s the ruins. No scientist ever could puzzle that one out a lick,” he said. “Shame. I’d like to know how they got there.”

“That’s certainly an interesting story,” Kanaya said, “Do you have any theories about the ruins?”

“Naw,” Granddad said loudly, brushing the question away. “Some scientists and archeo-logs came out here once. It’s all gibberish to them.”

“Too bad,” John lamented, “I would like to know how they got here as well.”

“Just don’t go poking around them gray monoliths,” Grandpa Harley warned. “They’re unstable and old as dirt and the water’s deep there.”

“We won’t,” Jade promised.

Karkat remembered Dave talking about them before. Something about frogs and spirals carved into the dark stone. It was an interesting set of ruins, no doubt about that. 

Jake finished readying the lines and passed out five poles baited with shrimp. Karkat turned his down as the boat drifted. Grandpa Harley kept up a steady stream on island info and old stories as Jade, Jake, and John fished.

After an hour Karkat came to the conclusion that fishing was the single most boring thing on the entire planet. Even John’s eagerness couldn’t support him as he sagged over his motionless fishing rod as the minutes passed.

Jade and Jake didn’t look bothered by it. “You have to wait for the fish to come to you,” Jake said, “There’s no rushing good fishing.”

By lunch no one had caught anything and Harley steered the boat to the other side of the island. The tour was nice, but Karkat was beginning to feel seasick as time wore on. He wished for land. The ocean all looked the same, just the endless stretch of the horizon in the distance over flat water. As soon as he turned away from the island, he could have been in the middle of nowhere. It was an unnerving idea. 

They called it quits after a lunch of the sandwiches Porrim had packed. Karkat gave his to Bec. He didn’t want to risk anything on his stomach while it still rolled with the hint of nausea. 

Grandpa Harley kept his eyes on the sea the entire time, one hand on the wheel as the horizon slowly changed. Gray overtook blue. 

They headed back to the dock and Karkat couldn’t quite shake the feeling of suspense piling up around him, like the storm clouds that darkened the horizon as they pulled up to the dock and Jake sprang out over the water to tie them in. The sky was blackened there, with the occasional flash of lightning to illuminate the storm head. Their sunny day was eclipsed by cloud cover just as they made it back to the house on the hill and the first drops began to rain down. 

…

 

The storm felt like a bad one, but beneath the waves the water was still and calm. Squalls didn’t bother Dave. If anything, they made things interesting as they drug up debris from the depths and heralded floating trash onward. The racing winds and blinding rain never touched him. He could feel the drop in pressure against his scales and the colder currents from the rain, slightly fresher than the brine as it passed against his gills with a chill. Beyond that, the stormy sky played no role in his day other than heaping a fuck ton of worry onto his mind for Karkat and the others, trapped above the surface and at the mercy of the elements. 

Thunder boomed overhead and the sound carried underwater. In response he headed deeper, out of the bay and past the reef, into the open ocean where the storm had no power to bother him.

Roxy streaked down beside him, her smile wide. “It’s a mess up there,” she said, “I could almost breathe past the surface with how thick the rain is.” A school of fish darted by, heading out of the shallows to the shelter of the deep. 

Dirk just rolled his eyes. “I thought you were done with riding storm waves?”

“They are the best waves,” Roxy shrugged, “Wild and full.”

“It’s been a while since there’s been a good squall like this,” Rose said, “It should invigorate the seas once it’s passed.”

Dave dove lower, deeper. The sun was hidden by the storm and the water was dark and still. The pressure closed in on him, pulling at his fins and face as the depth increased. It grew cold and crushing and dark, but Dave could see just fine and the cold didn’t bother him. The sea floor loomed before him out of the gloom, a bare expanse of sand. They weren’t that far past the reef and only three thousand or so feet down. 

He’d been much deeper than this before. If the sun was out it wouldn’t even be full-dark at this depth. At least, not for his eyes. 

The sea floor was bland and boring, as most of the seabed tended to be. Flat nothingness. Down here the rough currents and electricity couldn’t touch them, but a part of Dave wanted to be in the bay, fighting the storm and riding the wild waves that he knew were pounding against the shore.

But Dirk was stubborn. “We don’t know how the seas shift here during a storm this big,” he said, “We’ll wait this one out.” He dug down through the thick sand to scrape out a bed, but Dave eyed the sea floor with distaste. Things crawled in that sand. Things with legs.

The whole event reminded him of all the times before they’d slunk low and made themselves scarce, scraping by unseen and afraid. It felt like he’d fallen into the past by four years and they were halfway between Chile and Australia and the scars down his arm twinged with an old hurt.

The night passed slowly, and so did the storm. It wasn’t a typhoon, no spin to it, but it was an impressive squall all the same. The warm water had whipped it into a frenzy and the thunderheads climbed higher as the pressure dropped. Dave slept fitfully and raced back to the island as soon as he could with his siblings behind him. Dirk said nothing about his haste to return, but the orange siren knew it was because of his worry for Karkat. 

The sky hadn’t cleared completely when they came back up to the island, but the rain had stopped. Downed palm fronds and branches littered the beach. “I’ll wait here,” Dave said, “You can head back to the bay without me, I’ll catch up.”

Rose nodded, and her eyes shone before the three of them swam off without him.

The sea was still rough and choppy, but it was a fun challenge for him. He could see light shining from the house on the hill through the trees, so he knew that they should probably be alright. His nerves didn’t recede until he spotted a familiar Karkat strolling down the beach, a stick in his hand that he used to turn over a fallen palm frond. 

The wind was ragged, and it threw Karkat’s fluffy black hair into disarray and made his brown eyes into squints. Dave popped up not too far away once he knew the human was alone.

Karkat nodded at him before stripping off his shirt and shoes and wading out. He made it about a foot before he grumbled at Dave. “Why the ever-loving fuck is the water so cold? It’s fucking June.”

“The storm brought colder currents closer to shore,” Dave explained, “Does it bother you that badly?”

Karkat grunted and slowly eased back out. A wave broke against him and nearly knocked him over. His arms wind milled as he fought for balance. “Are you sure I won’t get battered to death?” He asked, eyeing the rough surf where Dave swam.

“Not with me here,” Dave said. Karkat held his breath as he plunged into the sea in a head-long dive. He dove under a wave and came up for air just to have a second one floor him in the face. The siren shot forward and grabbed onto him as he choked up the mouthful of sea water he’d swallowed.

“Shit,” Karkat said, clinging to him. “The ocean is not a happy place right now.”

“Yeah,” Dave said, “Its a little rough at the moment.”

“How are you?” Karkat asked, eyeing him with concern. “I was worried with the storm and all.”

“I’m fine,” Dave said. “Storms don’t bother us any. I was more concerned about you.”

Karkat tried to hide the blush that crept up his face at the words. “Why?” Karkat asked curiously, “We at lease had a strong roof over our heads. You and your family were the ones out here in the elements.”

“We sheltered in deeper water,” Dave answered. “Nothing can reach us down there.”

“How deep?”

“Over three thousand feet,” Dave said, and Karkat’s jaw dropped.

“No fucking way,” he said. ‘That’s over half a mile down.”

“So?” Dave asked. “That depth is nothing to us.”

“So how deep can you go?” Karkat asked, and they rolled with a high swell as it ran under them.

“Not sure,” he said. “I’ve been at the bottom plenty of times. It’s mostly just dark and empty. There’s nothing to hunt either and the deeper you go the more uncomfortable the pressure gets, but other than that it’s not that bad.” Dave said. “The deepest I’ve personally been was around 20,000 feet once on a dare.”

“Who dared you?” Karkat asked. 

“Some little shit named Eridan,” Dave answered, fondly remembering the other siren. “We were never good friends, but he hung out with Feferi all the time and she was pretty alright. He’s a smug asshole with an ego the size of an orca.”

“Other sirens?” Karkat asked, awestruck.

“Yeah, we stuck with them for a while once,” Dave said. “We kind of blundered into each other after...” He trailed off suddenly, his voice going quiet at the memory of the six scared and alone kids in the open ocean, before he began again. “Anyway, they’d been separated from their families so we banded together until they found each other again.” Or at least Feferi had. The queen had had made it out, and so had Feferi and Eridan and a dozen others thanks to Dave’s dad. Eridan had lost his whole family that day. At least Dave was lucky enough to have his siblings still. He fought to give this story a good ending, something happy, something that wouldn’t make Karkat question him. “Eridan thought the dare was a good idea and Feferi egged Rose on about it until we all joined in. Roxy won.”

Karkat huddled closer, his skin slick as he held Dave’s hand. He ran his fingers over the scars that flickered up and down the skin there. Dave held himself very still. “What happened?” Karkat asked softly. “You’ve hinted at it before.”

Dave clucked his tongue and held up his hand. His forearm was streaked with faint scars from elbow to fingertip. They weren’t that noticeable unless scrutinized like this, where they became a glove. He could feel the marks squirming under Karkat’s gaze. “Burn scars,” Dave said. “You’d think that living underwater made us safe from shit like that.”

“The universe has a way of finding new and creative ways to fuck people over,” Karkat answered. He brushed back the black hair from one side of his face to reveal a cracked red scar that ran from his temple into his hair. “I’ll explain mine if you explain yours. I don’t think either is a good story,” he said.

Dave swallowed, his heart dropping at the sight of Karkat’s scar. It was such an unexpected thing to find on his friend. Dave had held onto his hope that Karkat didn’t have skeletons in his past that haunted him, but that mark proved otherwise. Dave wanted to reach out and touch it, to run his fingers over the place where the hair had never grown back, but Karkat had combed over the mark with his fingers again, hiding the large scar from sight. 

“I’m sorry,” Dave said, even thought he didn’t know what he was apologizing for. 

“Don’t be,” Karkat said. “It wasn’t your fault. It was mine.”

Something about his tone made Dave doubt the truth of that. But the time for secrets had passed. Karkat deserved to know the truth. “I’ll tell you what happened, but not here,” he said, “I’ll get you to the dock first.”

He waited until Karkat had a pole to hold onto, when they were out far enough to get past the swells. An angry looking gull shook water from its feathers as it glared down at them from the dock and squawked.

Karkat scowled at it and waved his arm, but it was stubborn and placed its head beneath a wing as it ignored his valiant efforts to get it to fuck off. “Fucking smug-ass seagull,” Karkat muttered. 

Dave eyed the bird with interest. “Leave it, I’ll see if I can grab it later.”

“Later?” Karkat asked.

“You ever eaten a gull?” Dave said. “Good shit right there.”

“I’ll try to forget you ever said that,” Karkat said, shuddering.

Dave just rolled his eyes at the human. “What? Fish can get boring after a time.”

“Again, I’ll try to scrub that one fact from my mind permanently,” Karkat said, looking interestingly green around his face.

“Why?” Dave asked curiously.

“Because you eat raw fish and clams and apparently random seabirds.”

“Well, yeah,” Dave answered. “I’m an equal-opportunity eater and they taste fucking amazing.” The feathers could be a pain in the ass, but that was the only thing bad about seabirds. Dave didn’t see what the problem was.

“It’s not the fact that it’s a gull or fish or anything,” Karkat tried to explain, “It’s just weird to remember that you eat everything raw.”

Dave just stared at him. “How so?”

“Call it a cultural thing,” Karkat said. “For us eating shit raw is bad. Except like, some fish, but only if it’s made right and I still think sushi is fucking disgusting in any case.” The human said, grimacing. His face colored red as he continued. “And I don’t really want to think about that one fact right now because I kind of want you to kiss me again.”

The unexpected admittance was delivered with a waver in Karkat’s voice that sent a delighted thrill down Dave’s spine. So that time before hadn’t just been a fluke. Karkat did like him back. He wanted to kiss him again. 

Dave felt himself break into a soft smile as he leaned in. The anticipation was nearly too much. Karkat breathed into him and Dave felt a jolt shoot up his spine as Karkat’s hands traced slowly up his sides. He laced his fingers through Karkat’s hair, so dry and soft, and kissed him again, angling his body closer until his tail brushed the pole. It was far too good and addictive, and he only stopped when his hand brushed against the scar that ran hidden across Karkat’s scalp. Karkat flinched away from the touch.

“Sorry,” Dave said, backing up to give the human some space. Or maybe to keep Dave from reaching for him again. Who knew? “Did that hurt?”

“No,” Karkat answered, “it’s just overly sensitive there. The skin is thinner around the area and I wasn’t expecting it.”

“Sorry,” Dave said again, swallowing thickly as he remembered the original reason for coming over here.

“I guess I’ll go first,” Karkat said slowly as water lapped at his chest, “It’s not like its some secret or anything. Everyone knows about it. It’s a long story though.”

“I have nothing but time,” Dave answered. 

Karkat didn’t smile. “I lost my family when I was young,” he said. “There was an accident. I was too young to ever remember them, but I had an older brother and a dad and a mom and everything. Not that it matters really. Sometimes I wish I remembered something about them,” he said. “But sometimes I don’t.”

Dave came closer again, cautious as Karkat continued. “Anyway, I was bounced around the foster system for a while and ended up in some really shitty places. Ran away at eight and landed in a new place before I made it three days on my own. No one ever cared about me. I guess to them I was just another foster brat with too dark skin and an attitude problem a mile high. I was nine when I was placed with my current custodian, and God knows how he fooled the system into getting me.”

Karkat paused while Dave ducked back underwater to wet his throat. It was uncomfortable how dry it got while he was breathing air. “Slick’s some mobster guy, like some shit out of a shitty noir movie with a list of felonies to his name. He really doesn’t give a shit about me. He only cares about collecting a check at the end of the month if my corpse is still breathing, but in most ways that’s a good thing. He leaves me alone and I like it that way. It’s not like I give a fuck one way or the other,” Karkat said, grimacing as he slowly continued, “I fucked up once when I was still new to his place. I was young and stupid and curious about what he did for a living so I broke out and followed after him one night.” He snorted. “I wandered into some sketchy alley and watched him beat a man half to death. One of his lackeys saw me and busted my head open with a fucking bottle, some fucker named Boxcars who was built like a brick wall and held together with stupid. Porrim found me the next morning in the streets. I don’t really remember what happened in-between the two events that well. Everything’s fuzzy.”

Karkat shrugged. “I got this nice scar as a reminder to mind my own fucking business,” he said coldly. “Ever since then we’ve had no problem with each other. I stay out of his way and look after my business, and he does the same. I learned my lesson, and it’s a better deal that other places I’ve been in.”

“You were only nine when that happened?” Dave asked sadly. When Karkat’s hair was down only the barest hint of the old wound showed at his temple, but Dave could remember how it felt under his fingertips. He didn’t understand a lot of the words Karat had used but he got the gist. 

“Yeah,” Karkat said. “How old were you?”

“Ten.”

Karkat sighed. “This is going to be bad, isn’t it?”

“You don’t have to listen of you don’t want to,” Dave said, leaning away to stare at him. “I’ll warn you now. It’s a shitty story with a fucked up ending.”

Karkat shifted closer in the water and braced himself against the underside of the dock. “I’ll stay,” he said.

Dave nodded slowly. “Good,” he swallowed, wondering where to begin.

“I was five the first time I met my mother,” he said. It seemed as good a place as any to start. “I was young, but I remember meeting her. It was such a big event to us back then, our first trip across the world’s oceans. It was a big adventure to us,” he said. “My dad was a great man and a great siren. He was one of the best of us all and probably the single best singer in history. He could sing the squall out of a storm on a stormy night,” Dave said, struggling to explain just how legendary his dad had been. “Roxy isn’t technically my sister. She’s our first cousin, daughter of our dad’s sister. Her parents were lost when she was young and our dad took her in. We all loved him so much.”

“He sounds like a great father,” Karkat said softly. His eyes were already sad. He knew how this story would end.

“He was,” Dave answered, and the past tense nearly broke him. “I miss that bastard so much sometimes, but I’m telling this out of order.” Dave took a deep breath, just to feel his chest move with it. “Our mom was human. Most sirens have a human parent somewhere up the family tree, and when I got to meet her I was kind of shocked by how much Rose looked like her. I’d seen humans before, but suddenly there was this strange woman hugging me and she had legs and I was really weirded out by it you know?” Dave said, “I was five, so I guess it makes sense that the feeling quickly wore off. Dad was so proud. I could see how happy he was to have the five of us together. He was always a sucker for families. It was his hidden weakness.”

Karkat looked surprised at the admittance of a human mother, but he didn’t interrupt. 

Dave shrugged, “Anyway, there’s this place. Was, not anymore. An island where once a year sirens met up and hung out. It was our capital, the heart of us. The few humans who knew about sirens were always there. It’s where I met most of my friends for the first time, and I’ll treasure those goddamned memories till I die. We could only visit once every five years due to how far away it was, so me and Rose were ten the second time we made the trip.” Dave’s throat felt tight. He didn’t know how to go on from here. He’d never had to tell this story before, and already his throat was closing up, drawn tight with pain.

“The island was a literal oasis, full of magic and life. There were several hundred sirens there, and a few dozen humans. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Most of them were kids and small families meeting up. No one knows how the hunters found us,” he snorted. “No one even fucking knew hunters even existed before then, so when the boats showed up no one even flinched. We fucking welcomed them right in.”

“Dave,” Karkat muttered, sounding heartbroken.

“You can guess what happened next,” Dave said, spitting the words out past the lump in his throat. “It was a massacre. Only a handful of sirens escaped, mostly due to my dad. He tried to fight them off and let a dozen or so slip past them with us. Dirk told me not to look, but I did anyway,” he said. The memory of it overtook him then and made his next words hollow. “I watched him die. Watched a lot of people I cared about die that day. Lost both of my parents and became an orphan all at once. We all did.”

Karkat raised an arm, like he was going to hug the siren, but the limb fell as he thought better of it. Dave held up his burnt hand. “They set the water on fire. I burnt myself fighting like a dumbfuck trying to get to my dad. Dirk hauled me away.” The memories crowded up his throat, choking him. “I get why Dad did it, but I’m still so pissed at him sometimes. Why did he have to be the hero?” 

“I’m so sorry,” Karkat breathed out, his eyes calm and deep. “Dave…”

“The queen declared the island dead after that,” the siren answered slowly, continuing on as if he wasn’t falling part. “We’d lost so many people. There were never that many sirens and now we’re a fucking endangered species. We hoped it was a fluke, just some crazies out for blood, but then they struck another family off the coast of India and Peixes outlawed all human contact. It’s been the same ever since.”

“Peixes?” Karkat asked.

“Feferi’s mom,” Dave explained. “The queen. Feferi’s the heiress to the position. They both escaped the island and the hunters. She’s still pissed off that this happened on her watch. Not a single Seer saw it coming. No one even knows how they found out about us.”

Dave didn’t realize he was shaking until Karkat pulled him into an embrace. He buried his face into the human’s neck as comforting arms wrapped around him, Karkat kicking awkwardy to keep himself upright “We’re not the bad guys,” Dave said, his voice muffled against Karkat’s skin.“I don’t even think we did anything wrong. They killed us anyway.”

“They’re just evil people,” Karkat whispered, low and angry “That’s all.” His arms tightened around Dave.

Dave shook away the memory of blood and fire in the water and relaxed into the touch of warm skin. “Technically,” he said, running one trailing finger across Karkat’s face, “I’m breaking the queen’s law by being with you.”

“Really?” Karkat asked, snuggling closer. His breath puffed across Dave’s face and cheek.

“Yes,” Dave said, “But I don’t really care. Rose has assured us that in any case resisting is futile. Apparently this clusterfuck is destiny-approved and fighting it would only result in temporal inevitability.”

“I only understand a bit of that,” Karkat answered. “Magic shit is not in my division, but it sounds like this was meant to happen?”

“It totally was,” Dave said, “I knew it from the first second I saw you puking your guts out over the side of the boat that first night.” He teased gently.

“That was you!” Karkat nearly screeched. “I fucking knew it.” His nose traced a line down the side of Dave’s neck and the siren’s thoughts scattered. 

“Yeah, I was there,” Dave answered. “We had to see who the new people were and somehow the sight of you hurling your lunch didn’t disgust me because all I wanted to do was swim up like an utter fucking dumbass and say hi.”

It all made sense in hindsight. The wild burst of magic that nearly escaped him at the first sight of Karkat. The pull in his chest, the draw to be near. Resistance was futile, especially with Karkat’s lips only a fraction of an inch away. It was easy to close that distance, to kiss him gentle and slow as the sea tossed storm waves around them and a slow heat built up where Karkat’s hands gripped his shoulders.

There was absolutely zero part of him that wanted this moment to ever end. If fate had decided that Dave and Karkat were a thing, well, he still thought that fate should go fuck itself but at least fate had good taste in human boys with soft hair and big hearts and brown eyes that crinkled at the edges. The thought was reinforced when one of Karkat’s hands drifted lower to circle his waist and left a trail of fire behind everywhere his fingers skimmed Dave’s skin. It was electric and the siren’s fins flared in response and sent a delicious shiver through him.

A distant voice yelled out from the trees and reluctantly broke them apart. “KAAARRRKKAAATTT!”

Dave recognized John’s voice. Karkat sighed and rolled his eyes. “He might not be alone,” The human mentioned, and Dave took the hint to vanish underwater as Karkat reluctantly drug himself out of the sea and onto the dock, shaking the saltwater from his dripping hair. 

Dave saw John and the adult Porrim walk out of the trees, and he swam out of sight with the buzz of Karkat’s hands on him still tingling beneath his skin.

…

 

Porrim was not happy that he’d been swimming in this weather. Karkat remembered the strength of the surf when it knocked him over before and knew she was right to worry. It felt like getting caught in a washing machine set on spin cycle. 

“Do you enjoy giving me a heart attack?” Porrim chastised, and Karkat shrugged with guilt. He couldn’t exactly explain why he hadn’t been in danger. “John couldn’t tell me where you were and I was worried,” she said.

“I was curious about the sea after the storm,” Karkat answered, “The waves drug up all kinds of neat shit.” John shot him a warning glance, eyes wide.

She narrowed her eyes at him and Karkat gulped hastily. “I mean,” he said, “I’m sorry I worried you like that. It won’t happen again.”

“Don’t force me to ground you while we are on vacation,” Porrim said, rubbing at her temples, “I would feel guilty about such a course of action later, but I will if you continue to wander off on your own. Please at least take someone else with you if you insist on throwing yourself into the sea each time my back is turned.”

“I’ll take John or Kanaya with me next time, I promise,” Karkat said placatingly. “Right, John?”

John nodded eagerly. “Yeah Porrim, don’t worry about us. It won’t happen again.” It was hard not to believe John’s earnest gaze, but Porrim was immune to such tactics from the two of them. She turned away and John let out a deep breath.

“Thanks for the warning,” Karkat whispered to him, and he nodded silently.

John kicked over a chunk of driftwood that had a crab under it. The poor creature went spinning through the air and collided squarely with Karkat’s face. It immediately seized hold of his earlobe with its claws. Shit, that hurt like a motherfucker. 

“WHAT THE FUCK,” Karkat yelled, swinging at the crustacean attached to his face, “JOHN YOU UTTER MORON, DON’T JUST STAND THERE!”

John burst out into helpless laughter, and it was up to Porrim to gingerly pry the crab off of him while he tried not to flail and scream so much, which was hard when a crab was glued to his fucking face. His ear cartilage felt crushed and burning, and he flipped the crab off from where it dangled peacefully in Porrim’s fingers.

She clucked her tongue at him. “Karkat, do all sea creatures treat you so poorly?”

John just laughed harder.

…

 

That night Karkat asked Jade if he could borrow her computer. A solid month had passed out of their summer vacation and he was due to check in with a friend.

carcinoGeneticist (CG) began Pestering twinArmageddons (TA) at 6:12pm. 

CG: SOLLUX YOU PIECE OF SHIT GET YOUR ASS ONLINE.

twinArmageddons (TA) is an idle chum!

CG: I KNOW I’M LIKE 13 HOURS BEHIND YOU BUT COME ON. IT’S NOT LIKE YOU SLEEP ANY MORE THAN I DO. I AM FUFILLING OUR PRIOR OBLIGATION TO CHECK IN AT THE END OF EVERY MONTH SO YOU KNOW I HAVEN'T GONE FERAL OR STRANGLED JOHN TO DEATH YET.

twinArmageddons (TA) is online!

TA: kk chiill. ii know a2 hard as iit ii2 two keep your2elf away from technology and the fact that you’re iin the miiddle of 2crewball fuckoffviille mean2 iit2 hard for you two get online, but really try a liitle harder next tiime. ii’ve been reduced two pe2teriing my2elf from alt account2 ju2t two li2ten to my2elf beiing an a22hole.  
TA: iit’2 a pain iin the a22.  
CG: WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED THAT YOU WOULD SINK SO LOW? IT’S ONLY BEEN A GODDAMNED MONTH YOU DEPRAVED LUNATIC.  
TA: ye2 thi2 ii2 exactly what ii meant. iit’2 2o much better when iit’2 actually you 2creamiing at me and not ju2t a 2hiity riipoff alt ii threw twogether iin fiive miinute2.  
CG: WHY ARE ALL OF MY FRIENDS SUCH UTTER LUNATICS? WHAT UNIVERSAL LAW DEEMED THAT I CAN’T HAVE A SINGLE NORMAL INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP? WHO DECIDED THIS?  
TA: iit’2 probably becau2e we both hate people.  
CG: PROBABLY.  
CG: ANYWAY, HOW ARE YOU? IT’S BEEN A MONTH SINCE I’VE BEEN SUBJECTED TO YOUR ASININE TROUBLES AND I ADMIT I’VE MISSED THEM.  
TA: aw fuck kk, ii mi22ed you two.  
CG: NEVER MIND. FRIENDSHIP RESCINDED. I FORGOT HOW READING YOUR FUCKING QUIRK GIVES ME A MIGRAINE.  
TA: well fuck you two dude. ii don’t need thii2 constant negatiiviity iin my liife. ii wa2 glad two be free of you for four whole week2. the 2iilence was a natiional fucking trea2ure. ii wouldn’t trade my iindviidualiity and typing quirk for anyone. do you know how many codiing project2 ii’m iin? typiing liike thiis keep2 flagged word2 off the fuckiing radar.  
TA: don’t miind me, ii’m just tryiing to keep the fed2 off of our collectiive a22e2.  
CG: YOU KNOW WHAT? I’VE LOST ALL ABILITY TO GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU AND YOUR SHITTY CODING PROJECTS. THERE’S NO WAY THAT’S EVEN FUCKING LEGAL. ARE WE DONE WITH THIS GRAND REUNION SCENE ALREADY? I MISSED YOU, EVEN THOUGH I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I’M EVEN FRIENDS WITH YOUR PESSIMISTIC ASS.  
CG: NOW LET’S CUT THE SHIT. I NEED A FAVOR.  
TA: ii’m not even fuckiing 2hocked. would iit kiill you two maybe check iin ju2t to 2ay hii? ii wa2 getting worried you’d fuckiing diied out there, you ungrateful a22hole.  
CG: WILL YOU HELP ME OR NOT?  
TA: Fiine. What ii2 iit?  
TA: iit’d better be fuckiing good though. my 2kiills need a good challenge and lately the2e two-biit fiirewall2 are even more pathetiic than usual.  
CG: CAN YOU TRACE FLAGGED WORDS? LIKE, HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?  
TA: you mean flagged liike “type iin some bull2hiit about bombiing the natiional bank and 2ome de2k grunt gets an emaiil” flagged?  
CG: SURE. I THINK SO. THERE’S NO WAY IT’S NOT THAT STUPID.  
TA: actually yeah. iit’2 really ju2t that fuckiing 2tupiid.  
TA: the problem ii2 2tupiid doesn’t mean iit doesn’t fuckiing work. there’2 a rea2on ii type liike thii2 and iit’2 not ju2t to 2uiit my probably neurotiic iimpul2e2.  
TA: what kind of 2hiit are you up two? how diid you even manage two fiind 2hiit to bury yourself iin on fuckiing hellmurder ii2land?  
CG: IT’S A LONG STORY AND I CAN’T SHARE IT NOW. I JUST HAVE A HUNCH THAT I’D LIKE YOU TO INVESTIGATE FOR ME WHILE I’M STUCK IN FAMILY BONDING HELL. CAN YOU TRACK DOWN THE ORIGIONAL LOCATION OF A FLAGGED WORD OR PHRASE OR JUST SHUT IT OFF ALL TOGETHER?  
TA: iit depend2 on what defen2e2 they have iin place and how long iit’ll take me to break them before the 2y2tem fuckiing notice2 me pokiing around iin theiir 2erver2.  
TA: hiit me wiith iit and ii’ll get 2tarted. ii’m iintriigued. what flagged word2 are you talkiing about kk?  
CG: I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF IT’S FLAGGED OR NOT. IT’S JUST AN IDEA I HAD. SOMEONE TOLD ME SOMETHING AND I THOUGHT IT WOULD MAKE SENSE IF THEY’D FLAGGED THE WORD OR SOME SHIT LIKE THAT.  
CG: JUST SEE IF THERE IS A TARGETED COMMAND CODED INTO THIS WORD OR OTHERS LIKE IT AND IF SO CAN YOU SHUT IT THE FUCK OFF? IT’S VERY IMPORTANT.  
TA: karkat 2top ii already said ii’ll fuckiing do iit. ii don’t need your verbal mind 2pew thrown iin liike ye2terday’2 garbage.  
TA: just giive me the word.  
CG: SIRENS. DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE LAUGH AT ME SOLLUX, TAKE YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM THE KEYBOARD RIGHT FUCKING NOW AND DELETE WHATEVER FUCKED UP JOKE YOU WERE TYPING OUT. I DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO DEAL WITH YOUR SHIT RIGHT NOW.  
CG: SO YES. FUCKING SIRENS HAHA. SIRENS AND MERMAIDS AND EVEN THROW IN SOMETHING NAMED SKAIA. THAT’S ALL I KNOW.  
TA: kk.  
TA: ii’ve known you for year2.  
TA: how the fuck diid you expect me two not laugh at thiis 2hiit? Fuckiing mermaiid2? what weird-a22 mushroom2 diid you diig up on that ii2land?  
CG: NONE TO MY KNOWLEDGE BUT WHO REALLY KNOWS? I’VE ALREADY BEEN INFECTED WITH THE DISEASE CALLED FRIENDSHIP. IT’S THE ONLY EXPLANATION FOR WHY I KEEP CRAWLING MY ASS BACK TO FUCKERS LIKE YOU AND JOHN.  
TA: ok ok ii get iit. 2earch for the flag. 2iimple fiind and de2troy ca2e. kk you iin2ult me with 2uch meniial ta2k2.  
CG: WILL YOU JUST GET ON WITH IT ALREADY? I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW IMPORTANT IT IS.  
TA: you know you’ll have two tell me the 2tory behiind thii2 2oon. ii’ll be all ear2 for iit.  
CG: I WILL. JUST NOT RIGHT FUCKING NOW ALRIGHT? I’VE GOT A LOT OF PURE BULLSHIT ON MY PLATE TO DEAL WTH FIRST.  
TA: sure thiing. ii’ll let you know iif ii fiind anythiing relevant.  
CG: THANKS A LOT. I’LL OWE YOU ONE FOR THIS.  
TA: you’d fuckiing better, ungrateful a22hole.  
TA: have fun running through the fuckiing tree2 you wiild chiild. embrace your perky iiner nature 2piiriit or whatever the fuck. just don’t fuckiing drown on me, alriight?  
CG: I’LL TRY NOT TO, BUT I SWEAR TO GOD IF JAKE TRIES ONE MORE TIME TO CONVINCE ME TO GO FUCKING CAMPING I’M THROWING MYSELF INTO THE VOLCANO.  
TA: g2g, see you later kk  
TA: preferably before the end of next month or ii’ll fuckiing fly out there my own goddamn 2elf so you can 2cream at me iin person. ii can’t take another three week2 of yelling at barely 2entiient AI bots ii just can’t.  
CG: OK ASSHOLE, I’LL CHECK IN AGAIN SOON ALRIGHT? TRY TO KEEP THE SELF-PROGRAMMING OBSESSIVE SPREE TO A MIMINUM. ONLY ONE OF US CAN BE HAVING A MENTAL BREAKDOWN AT A TIME, NEVER THE BOTH OF US. THE WORLD CAN’T HANDLE THAT DEGREE OF NARCISSISTIC SELF-HATRED AT ONCE.  
TA: you fuckiing know iit.  
TA: now fuck off and let me 2leep.  
CG: SEE YOU LATER. ASSHOLE.

twinArmageddons (TA) is now an Idle chum!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally we get to the real main character of this entire fic-- Sollux Captor. It's him. He's secretly the most important character. 
> 
> This is it--- the beginning of the end. Here come's the plot. it's racing down the mountainside full-force and we are a delicate flower perched on the cliff's edge directly in the path of this rolling plot avalanche. 
> 
> Here it comes! I'm so excited!!!!!!! 
> 
> There is exactly one (1) mistake that was made in this chapter and I promise it's intentional. If you didn't catch it-- Great! If you did, feel free to guess at what it means.


	10. End of Act One, Part One.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow Happy Wriggling day Karkat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> Its 6.12 everybody! That means it time to update this fic with the final chapter of Act One, Part One!
> 
> Here we go, and be warned, its a doozy
> 
> Like, mind the tags. Like always I really, really mean them.

Dave had no idea what the white rope contraption that Karkat drug down to the sea was. It just looked like a jumble of old rope and netting, and the comparison to nets made Dave’s skin and scales crawl.

“It’s a fucking hammock,” Karkat said, huffing as he drug the contraption into the waves. “Jade let me borrow it from her garden and I fully expect you to help me set it up.”

Dave grabbed a handful of the coarse rope in his hand. It did feel like a thick net, especially where it began to billow out in the water. “What the fuck is a hammock?” 

Dave and his siblings had decided to meet the humans on the beach today instead of in the bay, and Jade and John were battling the waves with Roxy while the sun shone down bright and brilliant. All hints of the storm had passed and the summer day was blistering.

Rose gingerly reached out to the white hammock with her eyes wide. “I remember these,” she said, her voice low, “Humans slept in them on Skaia.”

Dave couldn’t remember them until after his twin mentioned it. Suddenly his head was full of white hammocks and trees and humans and magic. It was a nice memory. 

“That’s the idea,” Karkat said, “I’m sick of floundering around and hanging off of Dave in water way over my head.”

The waves were crashing in shallower water where Karkat could stand, but in the lee of the dock there was a small cove where the water was still and shallow. Dave wasn’t used to being in water so shallow. His tail drug at the sand behind him but it wasn’t that bad. As long as he kept back from the shore and kept his chest and gills covered he’d be fine.

The rocks kept this cove sheltered and secluded. The rock wall was similar to that of the hot spring and the small beach was pebbled smooth and even. Karkat hammered one pole into the end of the rocks. Dave and Rose dug the other into the sandy floor and piled rocks around the base to hold it in place. When finished the large hammock stretched a full 8 feet long and nearly five feet wide. Both ends were out of the water, but the middle was saturated with the tide.

Karkat threw himself onto it and it swayed beneath him. The poles held thought, and his weight was supported. He rested his arms behind his head in satisfaction. “This isn’t half bad,” Karkat commented.

The sirens eyed the hammock with suspicion. Karkat huffed at them. “The worst that can happen is one of the poles gives way and dumps my ass in the sea,” the human said. “There’s no danger.”

“I will leave you two to it then,” Rose said with a gentle smirk. She sank back below the water and vanished in a swirl of lavender.

Dave tested the hammock with one hand, uncertain still. It swayed beneath him with a flex of white chords.

“Scared?” Karkat baited him lightly. He made a show of getting comfortable and Dave narrowed his eyes at him.

The siren hauled himself over the woven edge and rolled quickly into the middle. The hammock swayed and shifted beneath him and his hand caught onto the bindings in a show of nerves until it had settled into place. The end of his tail dangled over the edge and he coiled it into the shallow water of the middle of the hammock. It felt a bit like he thought a net would, but he wasn’t caught or tangled up like in his nightmares about hunters and stray trawling nets. Instead it supported him, just low enough in the water that he could breathe easily. Karkat scrunched down to meet him.

“See?” Karkat said. “It isn’t so bad once you get used to it.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Dave said, shivering. “This thing is against all my better instincts.” The water was only waist deep and the shore troublingly close but the summation of all he should fear didn’t feel so bad, not with Karkat so near. 

“I guess I’ll just have to prove it to you,” Karkat said, and he settled against Dave’s side. Warmth blossomed from here his skin pressed against the siren.

“You’re certainly in a good mood today,” Dave sighed as he relaxed against Karkat. He wanted to do more but wasn't brave enough too with the rest of his family so close. He wanted to kiss Karkat again, to make sure the time before hadn’t been a fluke. 

The human shrugged as he brushed hair out of his eyes. “Everything feels alright for once,” he said. “Just look at them.”

Beyond the dock the others were playing in the waves. Fins flashed and danced from the tangle of human limbs. Or siren limbs. Arms all looked the same. “I think this friendship plan was a success,” Dave commented happily. “Even Dirk is lurking about today.”

“Really?” Karkat asked curiously. “I haven’t even seen him yet.”

“He’s an elusive fucker,” Dave said, sighing. “Though how someone who is almost neon orange can manage to be so stealthy I’ll never know.” His brother was sticking to the deeper waters, out of sight as he sulked. The _all-humans-were-dangerous_ routine had gotten old by now.

“He should know we’re not out to get anyone,” Karkat muttered, scowling. 

Dave just shrugged. “Old habits die hard,” he said as he linked his fingers with Karkat’s. That felt nice, especially when Karkat rubbed his thumb along the backs of his knuckles. He stayed like that for a while, serene and calm as the sea breeze dried Karkat’s hair back into a fluffy mess. The same was happening to Dave’s own pale locks. He couldn’t remember ever staying up long enough for it to dry out before.

Karkat was looking at his hair with interest. “It’s paler when dry,” he said, “Nearly white.” 

“Well, yeah,” Dave said. “What color did you think it was?”

“Light blonde,” Karkat said. “Like sunbaked sand.” He lifted his hand up to cup Dave’s face. “May I?”

Dave let his eyes flicker closed and leaned into the soft touch. The sun soaked into his skin. He felt like he was glowing as Karkat ran his fingers through the siren’s hair. 

The barking of a dog broke his relaxation. He knew the sound for Bec, but he thought Bec had been left at the house today with the unaware adults.

“Oh shit,” Karkat sat upright, and a moment later Rose silently appeared beside them.

Dave quickly rolled off of the hammock and splashed back into the cove. His unusually dry hair was instantly saturated again. “What is it?” He asked, not really worried. 

Jade and Jake climbed out of the surf. John stayed submerged and Roxy’s head dipped back below the surface as the sound grew louder.

“I think we should leave,” Rose said quietly, “Now.” Her eyes glowed, a breath of power glazing across her irises. 

“Bec?” Jade yelled, struggling out of the surf. “Bec? How did you get out?” The girl turned around, her hair dripping as the white dog emerged from the tree line thirty yards away. His white fur shone in the light and his lips were bared in a snarl. The dog was also not alone.

The older human was with it, cane discarded as the older man took a frantic step forward. He was holding something up, and between the six years since Dave had last seen one and the instant it took him to realize the rifle was leveled dead at where Rose bobbed in the shallow cove was far too long. The second drug by in tortuous instants, just long enough for him to fling himself in front of Rose and yell “Get down!”

Agony bolted through him as the shot connected. An instant later the thunderous crack hit his eardrums and Dave collapsed back into the water. A cloud of blood rose up around him.

Karkat struggled to his side. The hammock crumbled in on itself as he threw himself at Dave, cursing.

Dave didn’t quite realize any of that. His head was ringing, gills flared wide as adrenaline and pain filled him. His chest was on fire, radiating pain down his entire right side and arm. He ignored it just enough to shove his twin below him, covering her with his body as he curled up tight against the blow.

“Dave? Dave are you alright?” Karkat’s panicked voice floated down, distorted by the water and the ringing in Dave’s ears. “Fuck. Fuck, Dave. Dave?”

“Dave!” Rose screamed. He tasted blood in his mouth and blinked up at the surface with wide eyes. The water was churning and the sun was blinding, but Karkat’s hands locked around his shoulders like steel and pulled both him and Rose to his chest.

The initial shock of being shot was fading fast as his mind jumped straight into overdrive. His heart was pounding inside his chest, light and fast and heavy all at once. His head broke the surface to snarling, from both Karkat and Bec. The dog was charging forward, teeth bared.

The old man was charging too, his hands fumbling to load another shot. “Halley!” He yelled, “Get it!” Bec jumped forward eagerly with a snarl and Karkat rounded on the giant dog fearlessly.

“Bec NO!” Jade shrieked and the dog lurched to a halt. “BAD DOG!”

The old man sicced it forward again. “Halley! Halley, get it! Get it, Halley!”

“Bec, no!” Jade cried out, stumbling up the shoreline at them with eyes like green fire. “Heel!”

The dog looked confused, torn between two masters. Its snarl was fading as it hesitated, glancing back and forth from the old man and the girl.

“Bec, please,” Jade begged, and she fell forward and hit her knees, her arms open and pleading. With a snap the dog made its decision. Bec broke his offensive stalking and slunk low on his white belly over to the girl. Bec licked at Jade’s chin and whined as she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his fur. “Good boy,” she said, “Best friend.”

The old man scowled, his face wild as he realized he’d lost his dog. His hands finally slid the bolt into place and drew back the hammer on his massive old rifle with shaking fingers. He took aim a second time, his feet nearly brushing the waterline. Point-blank range.

Dave locked eyes with the man with the gun. His dark green eyes were so much like Jake’s that it hurt, but he’d never seen Jake’s eyes twisted with such fear and desperation before. He ignored the pain that clamped his right side in its teeth and shook him like a shark with a seal. Rose was still behind him, shielded. Good. His thoughts fragmented. Had to keep her safe.

A heartbeat later and his view was cut off as Karkat deliberately set himself in front of Dave’s chest, one arm shoving the siren behind him.

“You,” Karkat choked out, “Fucking—”

The rifle was aimed at the human’s chest, right over his heart. “Get out of the way,” the man ordered, the line of his shoulders taunt. 

“You’ll have to kill me too,” Karkat swore, his teeth bared.

The old man blinked, his shoulders sagging. He wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of one hand, but the rifle didn’t waver in his expert grip.

Dave’s thoughts were beginning to catch back up with him as he battled against his body’s response to go into shock. His heart was beating, gills flared wide open. The hole through his chest hurt like fuck, but he didn’t think it was fatal. He coughed up salt water, just salt water, and knew it missed any lung tissue.

He didn’t even realize Dirk was there until a streak of searing orange tore past him. Dirk spun and knocked the man’s legs out from under him with a hard slap of his tail, and the human’s breath left him in a huff as his back hit the sand. His feet were just far enough into the water for Dirk to latch onto one ankle and drag the man a few feet into the sea. The human splashed and squirmed to free himself, but Dirk had a hold on him now and his brother’s face was fury. The knife glinted in the sunlight as the siren raised it high and Jade screamed. 

Dave found his voice just in time. It came from a deep place inside of him, louder than it should have as he yelled out “Dirk, Dirk _**STOP!”**_

The magic slammed into all of the humans like a physical blow, sharp and percussive. It was an order and Dave tasted the hint of red and blue in his mouth. He hadn’t even meant to sing, and he hadn’t, but the magic was there and strong and it couldn’t be ignored. 

Dirk could have ignored him. He was a siren; sirens weren’t affected by magic like humans were, but even he felt the strength behind Dave’s order and hesitated. His orange eyes flashed to Dave’s.

“Don’t,” Dave gasped out, his voice tight with pain, “Let him go.”

All of the humans were still frozen. It was just him and Dirk and the knife still held high and deadly. Dirk was serious. With his precision and skill it wouldn’t take any more than a single stab.

“He shot you,” Dirk spat at him, mouth twisted.

“I know,” Dave said, pained. “Let him go.”

“Why?” Dirk asked.

There were a million reasons why. The way Jade and Kanaya and Rose all got along so well. The way Roxy and John laughed together. The way Karkat’s skin was so warm against his even as the human stepped in front of a rifle to protect him and Rose. Six years’ worth of healing a day’s worth of harm at the hands of hunters and Dave still couldn’t bring himself to hate them, not even the man with the gun who had just shot him.

“Because,” Dave said, and he didn’t have the words to continue. There were no words, so instead he sang. A few second’s worth of song, poured out from the heart and carrying everything Dave couldn’t say out loud in a clicking reel. His brother slowly lowered the knife and the spell was broken. 

Karkat’s hands tightened on him again, just in time for Jake to throw himself headlong into the fight. The boy’s glasses were hanging off of one ear, but he hit Dirk hard enough to knock the siren off of and away from his grandfather. The knife went flying and sank a few feet away as the teen locked his arms around Dirk’s neck and shoulders and his legs wrapped around Dirk’s middle. The siren thrashed and fought, but the water was too shallow for him to escape and Jake had him in a chokehold. Water was going everywhere.

“Everybody stop!” Karkat screamed out, “Just fucking stop, alright?”

To no one’s surprise they all listened to the furious human. Karkat was nearly steaming with rage, the force of his anger swelling around them like a storm.

“YOU!” Karkat screeched, leveling one accusatory finger at where the old man was beginning to sit up. “You cannot just fucking shoot people! Who the fuck do you think you are?” Karkat didn’t wait for him to answer, whipping around to Dave. “Shit. Shitfuckshit Dave, Dave are you alright?”

Jade snatched up her grandad’s rifle and slung it into the sea. It tumbled end over end before it sank like a rock. 

“Maybe,” Dave said, “Fucking hurts like hell though.”

Rose’s cool hands pressed gently down over the wound. Her eyes were worried and she gnawed at her lower lip. Dave chanced a glance at himself.

Blood was still streaming hot and fresh from the puncture in his chest. It was below his collarbone and far enough over that it punched through the top of his ribcage. He tried to lift his arm and felt something sharp grate along the underside of his shoulder blade and nearly passed out. His vision swam. “I think it’s still in me,” he said, remarkably calm for the amount of pain he was in. 

“I think he’s in shock,” Rose said, and Roxy was there suddenly, John and Kanaya too. Everyone crowded around the small cove.

“Oh man,” John said, “What the hell happened?”

Dirk had gone still, but he redoubled his efforts to pry himself free of Jake’s forceful embrace.

Kanaya reached the pair of them first, “Do you promise to behave if Jake lets you go?” she asked sternly, channeling every inch of her mother that she could dredge up. 

“Dirk, cut it out,” Roxy floated over and laid a hand against his tail. Her voice was shaking. “Dave’s hurt.”

The orange siren fell silent, and Jake slowly loosened his hold until Dirk could slip free like an oiled eel. He flashed over to his brother’s side in an instant. Rose had her palm clamped against the wound, but blood was leaking from between her fingers.

Jake’s glasses were missing as he stripped off his shirt, and Dirk bristled with a warning as the human splashed down beside them.

“Easy fellow,” Jake said, his voice low and his empty hands spread, “No hard feelings mate. I’m here to help.”

Karkat snatched the mostly saturated shirt from him and pressed over the gunshot. “How do you feel?” He asked.

“Lightheaded,” Dave answered honestly. The cove was spinning.

Karkat lifted one end of the fabric to look at the hole and winced. “It’s still gushing,” he said, “I think it might need stitches.”

“We need to get the bullet out first,” Rose argued.

The old man drug himself out of the water and up onto dry land. His clothes were wet and seeped in red from the amount of blood in the water. Kanaya stopped him with a firm hand. “I think you should stay where you are,” she said, and something simmered low and hot in her tone.

“Porrim can do stitches, right Kanaya?” John asked quickly, his shoulders jumping with restrained tension. His blue eyes were wide and scared.

“I believe so,” Kanaya answered tersely, “But she still does not know about the sirens.”

Karkat snapped at the both of them, his hands holding Jake’s now red shirt against Dave’s skin. “Fuck the secret, Dave’s been fucking shot!”

“I’ll go get her,” John offered. “She can help.”

“Take Bec with you,” Jade said, “And hurry back.”

John vanished into the trees with the dog running at his side. The house on the hill looked very far away from the coast.

“Hold on,” Karkat ordered him sternly.

“I’m not fucking dying,” Dave argued. “I’ll be fine.”

“Dave,” Rose deadpanned, “the bullet might have missed your major organs but there’s a lot of damage. You are in danger of bleeding out. We need to get this wound closed immediately.”

“Sounds fun,” Dave grinned.

“That would be the shock talking,” Rose murmured. “Idiot.”

“I‘m not in shock,” Dave muttered. His head felt heavy, so he let it drop onto Karkat’s shoulder. “Don’ be stupid.”

“Just keep pressure on it,” Rose advised, “Roxy, do you think you can take my place?”

Roxy slid wordlessly into Rose’s position. Her hands pressed down on top of Karkat’s and Rose reluctantly removed her slim fingers. She found the adult human where Kanaya was guarding him. “You are an excellent shot,” Rose fired the hot words at the old man. It was not a complement. 

Mr. Harley said nothing. He looked like he’d aged a decade in five minutes.

Bec was barking again, and the dog raced out onto the beach ahead of John and Porrim, who jogged behind them with a bag swinging at her hip.

Dave blinked slowly at them, not quite comprehending what was going on.

“Can you help him?” John was asking the woman, “Please?”

“Mrs. Maryam,” Rose greeted her politely, dipping her chin as her tail coiled lavender beneath her. “I understand that these are trying circumstances for us to meet, but my brother requires your assistance. Can you help him?”

“I,” the woman swallowed, her hat tilted elegantly on her black hair. “John said someone had been shot?”

“Yes,” Rose said.

Dave could see the exact moment Porrim locked eyes with Karkat and took in the entire situation in a single second. Nothing escaped her sharp gaze, and she simply brushed aside the fact that several of the people present were not all human. It wasn’t important, not when there was a bleeding child to be seen to.

“Let me see,” Porrim asked, and she waded into the cove without a moment’s pause about how the water would ruin her dress. Roxy and Karkat peeled their hands away. 

Porrim inspected the wound. “The bullet must come out,” she said, unzipping the bag at her side. “I pray it’s in one piece.” She hefted up a slim pair of metal pliers and clucked her tongue in sympathy. “What’s your name?” She asked.

“Dave,” he answered, feeling faintly nauseous at the sight of the massive tool.

“Well, Dave,” Porrim said, setting her teeth in concentration. “This is about to hurt.”

“I know,” he said, and Karkat squeezed his hand tight enough to bruise. Porrim carefully dug the needlenose pliers deep into his flesh, dipped them into the hole in his skin and probed around for the bullet. Pain sparked and popped and everything… whited out. 

…

Dave came to and saw the human bite off a thread with her teeth as Porrim readied the needle. “I’d advise that you pass out again,” she warned.

“I’ll try my best,” Dave promised, his voice shaking. He felt exhausted to his core, weak and shaky. “Did you get it?” Somehow the wound hurt more now than it did earlier, radiating agony up and down his entire body in waves. 

“Yes,” Rose answered. “You’re lucky it didn’t shatter.”

Roxy bounced the small slug in her open palm. “Wanna see?”

Dirk just ground his hands into his eyes and sighed. “I give up,” he said blankly. “I surrender completely to this whole crazy ordeal. Rose, I’m sorry I ignored you,” he said, sighing. “I’m a fucking idiot.”

“Well yes, but we can go over that later,” she answered.

“What the fuck?” Dave said, and Rose simply hushed him, her eyes wide as Porrim readied the needle. What the fuck had he missed?

Porrim set the needle to his flesh and pushed it through. His skin jumped and twitched reflexively, but he didn’t pull away. “That feels weird,” Dave commented. Karkat looked like he was going to be sick.

Porrim kept the pressure steady as she sewed him up, making tight lines of stitching across the wound to hold his blood on the inside so it could heal. She worked quickly and evenly, every line perfectly straight. Her knots were precise and elegant, and when she cut the last thread his skin felt tight but not uncomfortably stiff. 

“How do you feel?” Porrim asked him seriously.

“I feel like I picked a fight with a Great White,” Dave answered honestly. “But I don’t think I’m going to pass out again.”

Rose studied the stitching closely. “As long as it holds and there’s no uncontrollable internal bleeding he should be alright,” she said at last. “It should scab over now that the bleeding's stopped.”

“Good,” Porrim said, and she rubbed tiny circles at her temples, “Now then, would anyone like to explain to me what exactly is going on?!” The last part ended in a near shriek as she let out her nerves at last. Her motherly wrath turned on the nine teens.

Jade stood her ground, her dog at her side. “Grandad shot Dave,” she admitted, “But he didn’t know!”

“He still can’t just go around shooting people!” John jumped up, his face indignant. 

“We should just leave,” Dirk said, his tail lashing. “Now.”

“Fuck off,” Karkat told him, narrowing his eyes at the older siren. “You don’t get to charge in here last minute and act like you’re the boss.”

“He did nearly kill Granddad as well,” Jake said helpfully, “Not that I can really blame him.”

“You’re the one who put me in a fucking headlock,” Dirk fired back hotly. 

“Wait,” John asked, confused. “Who tried to kill who again?”

“WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP!” Karkat yelled, “Long story short it was a ripe clusterfuck. Mr. Harley attacked us like a lunatic, fucking shot at Rose with a rifle, Dave threw himself in the way, predictably got shot because he’s an overprotective dumbass, Jade pulled some weird shit with Bec who also attacked us because why the fuck not? Dirk nearly knifed Mr. Harley because he was about to shoot Dave a second fucking time, and Jake intervened to stop Dirk from righteously stabbing Mr. Harley’s ass by breaking out a fucking headlock on us. Is there anything I fucking missed?”

Roxy nearly chortled, and Rose bit back an insane grin at the ridiculous situation.

“Nope, I think that sums everything up nicely,” Rose commented.

“Oh, right,” Karkat said, nearly face palming himself as Rose flicked her tail at him. “I nearly forgot. Porrim, sirens exist and we’ve been hanging out with them all summer. That’s why I’ve been sneaking away so often by the way. I think that should cover everything.”

Porrim had frozen, and her face turned an odd shade of red. “You said Mr. Harley did this?”

The man was still sitting in the sand in Kanaya’s shadow. If anything, he looked like he was just as much in shock as Dave was as Porrim rounded on him. “You did what!” Porrim thundered, rising up out of the water like a vengeful spirit. Mr. Harley didn’t move.

Porrim narrowed her eyes at the older man, her lips pursed. “I think we all need to have a nice long talk.” She said, “And I’m declaring myself in full control of the house until further notice.”

“I second the notion,” Kanaya added. “Jake? Jade?”

Jade nodded slowly.

“I can’t complain,” Jake said, shrugging. “Grandpa did bugger off and shoot someone.”

“We should focus on taking care of Dave,” Rose insisted. 

Dave rolled his tired eyes at her, “I don’t need taking care of,” he said, ignoring Porrim’s takeover. Human familial power plays were not his concern.

“Shut up,” Rose told him.

“I trust that you’ll be alright on your own?” Porrim asked, motherly concern leaking into her face and body posture. Her hands were on her hips.

“As long as the stitching holds he should be fine,” Rose answered.

“Now that the bleeding’s stopped we can take care of him,” Roxy said. “It’s not the first time we’ve had to patch him up, aye Dave?” She teased lightly as she threw an arm around his unhurt shoulder.

“Is there no one on my side about this?” Dave complained, slightly insulted as they talked like he wasn't there. “Look, I passed out one time—”

“Dave, shut the fuck up,” Karkat interrupted him with exasperation “God, you are the loudest mortally injured fucker I’ve ever met.”

Dave steadied himself in the water and swayed to one side, his head swimming dizzily. Rose propped him upright. “I think he should stay on this side of the island tonight,” she said. “He needs to rest and recover first.”

“I will leave you to it then,” Porrim dipped her head graciously at the small siren family.

“I thank you for your help,” Rose smiled at the woman. “It is much appreciated.”

“I’ll take everyone back up to the house and try to sort this mess out,” Porrim announced, “We won’t bother you again, at least not until the morning.”

Karkat was already shaking his head. “Fuck no,” he said, and amended his response at Porrim’s scathing glare. “Respectfully, I’m going to have to refuse.” Karkat said, gritting his teeth. “I can’t just leave.”

Dave was already feeling a twinge of irrational panic at the thought. 

“Karkat,” Kanaya began, ‘I think that-”

“No,” Dirk said suddenly. “Let him stay.”

Dave shot a grateful glance at his brother as Karkat did the same. 

“We’ll be further out,” the orange siren said, “This cove is no good for us but Dave should keep to the shallows. Karkat can keep a close eye on him for us.”

“Thank you,” Karkat nodded at Dirk. “At last someone speaks sense.”

“Are you sure?” Porrim asked Karkat. 

“Positive,” Karkat said.

“I want you back before breakfast then,” Porrim said, and she zipped her bag up again and gathered the rest of them under her arm like a mother hen. ‘Or I’ll come and get you myself.”

Mr. Harley was still motionless. Porrim extended her hand to him. “You as well,” she ordered. “To the house with you.”

Mr. Harley slowly rose to his feet and limped into the trees. John waved goodbye to them.

…

 

Karkat kept to the hammock. Dave’s siblings left them alone as the sun fell and darkness reigned. It was really loud outside, even at night. The bugs were crying and the waves were breaking along the beach. At least the moon was bright enough that he didn’t feel blinded.

Even after all the stress of the day he couldn’t sleep. He’d never tried to sleep without the comforting presence of solid and sturdy walls around him. He was used to burrowing deep into a nest of blankets until he could ignore the outside world enough to fall asleep. 

Here the outside world was everywhere. It was rubbed into his skin and his hair like the sand he kept fucking finding goddamn everywhere.

The tide was rising. It had dropped low enough for Karkat to stay dry in the hammock but now he was drenched and miserable. Dave had been underwater for the past hour, invisible in the darkness. At night the water looked like ink below the surface.

“Are you asleep yet?” Karkat asked, his voice a loud whisper. He would have bet that Dave was still awake. He could feel the siren’s eyes on him just like old times.

Dave surfaced without a sound. “You too?”

“Can’t sleep,” Karkat grunted, “Is it always so loud at night?”

“Pretty much,” the siren answered.

“Dammit,” Karkat sighed, “I guess I’m camping out after all. Jake will shit himself with joy.”

“It’s not so bad,” Dave said. “I like it.”

“Then why aren’t you fucking sleeping?” Karkat heard the smallest of ripples as the siren came closer. 

“Can I join you?”

That depended on if Karkat could stand the idea of Dave so close to him. “Go ahead,” Karkat said, and the siren hauled all eight feet of himself into the hammock beside him. His length was mostly crimson tail, which he coiled up. The hammock swayed beneath them as Dave got himself situated. His weight pulled the cords lower until Karkat was saturated again. 

“You know,” Karkat said, rambling to distract himself from the sudden closeness of the siren. “You don’t really remind me that much of a fish.”

“What?” Dave said, sounding tired. “That’s fucking random.”

“It’s true,” Karkat said, waving a hand at Dave’s scarlet lower half. “At first I thought your tail was just fishy, but it’s not really. It’s more serpentine than that.”

“Does that matter?” Dave asked. He lifted the end of his tail up and spread the fins. 

“See?” Karkat stated as the siren proved his point. “That’s nothing like a fish at all. What the fuck even are you?” It was so hard not to reach out and touch him, to not run his fingertips across those sleek scales. Karkat could feel fins resting against his feet. 

Dave flexed the entire sinus length of his crimson scales, stretching luxuriously. “I’m half-human,” he said. “And warm blooded. But sirens don’t really do that whole mammal milk thing.”

It was nice that Dave was trying to explain his impossible biology, but the true point was still not lost of Karkat. “Not to mention the fact that you don’t need to fucking breathe,” Karkat mentioned, “Seriously, that part kind of freaked me out earlier.”

All in all, he thought he’d handled Dave getting shot rather well. He hadn’t strangled anyone and his brain hadn’t melted out of his ears like he’d feared. The fresh memory still prompted him want to snuggle closer to the siren’s warm side, but he held back. When Dave had passed out all of him had gone limp, like a puppet with its strings cut. Slack limbs and a slack face. That’s when the true panic set in. Karkat tried to check for breathing because that’s what a sane and normal person did in situations like this- but breathing was something Dave rarely did and the feel of his too-still chest nearly gave Karkat a heart attack.

But he could feel the steady pulse of the siren’s heart under his fingertips when Dave threaded his fingers into Karkat’s.

“I’m sorry,” Karkat said. He ghosted his thumb across the back of Dave’s knuckles, wanting more. “This was all my fault. I should have known something was up with Mr. Harley.”

“Hey,” Dave said softly, and his eyes were so red in the moonlight. “This wasn’t your fault.”

“It might be,” Karkat said stubbornly. He remembered how his skin had crawled that night when Bec had jumped on him in his room, Mr. Harley’s imposing shadow in the doorway. All those morning’s he’d walked past the gun displays all around the house and brushed aside ammo magazines at the breakfast table. He should have seen this coming. 

“I’ll be fine,” Dave said, just as stubborn. “One little gunshot isn’t that bad.”

“You know,” Karkat said, “Anyone else shot like that would have ruptured a lung and fucking died.”

Dave just shrugged. “Superior species,” he said. “I’m just a lucky asshole I guess.”

“Can… can I see?” Karkat asked, confessing his worry.

Dave wordlessly shifted, his bare chest gleaming as he moved to show Karkat the stitched wound. There was still the shine of angry inflammation to it and Karkat couldn’t help himself he reached out and gently brushed his fingers below the injury. “Does it hurt?” He asked. 

Dave reached up and held Karkat’s hand against his chest. “No,” he answered. “Not with you here.”

His heart in his throat, Karkat rested his head on Dave’s shoulder opposite to the neatly stitched wound that he could tell was still hurting. Under his ear he could hear Dave’s heart beating and a bit of the tension wound through him fell away. Dave was here and safe and alive. The siren was warm under him, his human half curling around so that Karkat fit perfectly against him.

The siren held their hands up to his chin and brushed his lips along the back of Karkat’s hand with a small smile.

“What are the odds that your family is listening to us?” Karkat asked curiously, craving the salt and sea taste of the siren’s mouth. 

“It’s very high,” Dave warned, “They’re like fucking hagfish out there. I’m sure of it.”

Karkat sighed deeply and felt his eyelids droop. It had been a long day. The water was still and calm and Dave was warm at his side. The stars were bright overhead, so he closed his tired eyes. Sleep felt easier with Dave beside him. 

They stayed like that, curled together in a mix of olive skin and red scales, pale skin and dark hair as the wind blew softly overhead as together they drifted off to sleep. 

 

End of Act One , Part One.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT A WAY TO END A PART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> After this there will be a short posting break, followed by Intermission One, followed by another short break before the normal posting of Act One, Part Two begins. 
> 
> Its here.... the plot is here. An entire 10 chapters worth of building up to the actual meat of the story has led us to the end of this part and onto the second one. 
> 
> Sorry for any unwelcome shocks in this chapter, like Dave getting fucking shot. It's a good way to ease into the risk and danger from the world they're in while breaking free of that idealistic safety that so far the island has represented. The Real World is creeping in, and that's a scary fact.


	11. Act one, Part one Intermission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Its time for the first Intermission!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> **WARNING!!**
> 
> The Intermissions contain different tags from the rest of the fic and can be skipped if necessary. IF you think the tags are too much for you, there will be a full summary of the intermission in the bottom notes.
> 
> **TAGS:** Extreme violence. Blood and Gore. Talk of medical procedures. Injury. Natural childbirth. Sexual content. Death. Character death. Slurs.

Act One Part One intermission

Lalonde isn’t a believer. Her mind is better suited for scalpels and a doctor’s keen intuition. She believes in the church of the seen and scientifically verified. Her lexicon drips in adjectives and prescription pills and the addictive sin found at the bottom of a martini glass. There is very little that she holds stock with that can’t be found underneath a microscope.

She is a surgeon, and time off means dead people. She took very little time for herself beyond her nightly drinks to steady her nerves before bed at the end of a 12 hour shift. After five years of this, she'd saved up enough vacation days for a small seaside getaway and her nerves are frayed raw and throbbing.

She is much better suited for a lab coat than a bikini, but the seaside cottage is cozy and the town is bustling with briny bars and nightclubs that spill out dancefloors under the stars. It is hard for her to switch off the part of herself that still longs to be in a trauma center, but that part of her gets still and quiet after her first few rounds. By the fifth she is pleasantly buzzed and feeling very full of herself.

She isn’t drunk. She wouldn’t label herself an alcoholic just yet, but for all of her drinking habits she can never remember more than a handful of times that she was well and truly drunk. Grad school in particular holds most of those unpleasant memories of mystery booze and vomit in the ends of her blonde hair. She is too smart to make bad decisions a second time, and she’s learned to pace herself.

The beach is quiet and secluded. The lights from the club have faded behind her and the sand is warm between her toes. She isn’t sure what it was that drew her further and further from civilization, but the night was cool and the sea was calm and enticing and deep inside of her, there was an urge to wander, to listen.

She did. She strained her hearing and there at the very edge of it she heard something that tugged at her heartstrings. Lalonde followed after it, drawn forward by curiosity and a peculiar longing she couldn’t quite name.

Someone was singing.

It started out low, just barely in her range of hearing. But she was determined and stubborn and hunted out the singer across the rocky beaches until it grew louder and clearer to fill her head with fire and heat.

Her heart gave a squeeze. The song was all around her. It had words, maybe. Maybe it didn’t. It blended with the gentle crashing of the waves and hissed like the seafoam that shone white in the moonlight.

The water drew her forward. It called to her, deep and unmistakable. The sound wound tight into her core and tugged, calling closer, closer. 

She stopped at the water’s edge. A wave brushed saltwater over her bare toes and the song intensified like a punch to the gut. She stumbled forward blindly until her wits caught up to her and she froze knee-deep and fully clothed in the sea. 

Her focus sharpened. “Who’s there?” She called out, tense with the beginnings of fear. “Show yourself.”

The song swelled until she felt her head go numb with it, then it slacked off and she heard a hidden breath of laughter ring out from the dark water.

“Do you want me to show myself?” Someone teased. The voice was deep, male, and musically beautiful. Lalonde heard a light splash as the singing swimmer came closer. Her face burned with embarrassment and anger. She could feel him watching her.

She straightened up and scowled in his direction as she brushed back her sea-swept hair. “Would I have asked if I wanted otherwise?” Lalonde snapped.

Another laugh, closer than before. A breath of song snatched at her again and she swallowed against it as it pressed its waves against her. Lalonde stood her ground. “What is this?” She demanded.

She could see his eyes shining in the dark. His face was at the waterline and his eyes burned with a copper orange/red flame, the twin fires ruddy. 

“Magic,” he answered.

“I don’t believe in magic,” Lalonde scoffed at once. Even with the silken song in her ears the idea was ridiculous. 

“Come closer, and I can show you.” He answered, and those fire eyes vanished back into the sea. Her skin crawled and her bones creaked. The song swelled again, and this time she kept walking until the water lapped at her chest and her light sundress was slick against her legs.

Lalonde stopped and drew a deep breath. “Where are you hiding?” She asked, scanning the dark water. Fingers brushed gently against one of her calves and she reflexively kicked at him. She didn’t know how he’d gotten so close, but her foot met with nothing and when he laughed again his voice was still several feet away.

“I’m not hiding,” he said, and his eyes glowed as he blinked slowly at her.

“Then what are you doing?”

“Testing you.”

The answer struck a chord of worry inside her. Lalonde hoped that her mystery swimmer wasn’t a serial killer. She had taken several self-defense classes and could look after herself, but she never had been a great swimmer. She was alone and out of her element.

“And what test is this?” She asked, and her voice was breathless and breezy. Against all of her common-sense, something was telling her to stay put, to not run for the shore. For all of her apprehensions, she couldn’t feel any danger here.

“One you’ve just passed,” his voice hissed, and she could see him now. He was right in front of her, bare chested and sharp jawed. His eyes still shone an unnatural shade of orange-red like a banked coal.

Lalonde sucked in her breath in shock. His chest was well defined and suntanned to perfection. The deep jut of his hipbones melted smoothly into the water below outlined abdominals. His shoulders were broad and his nose fine. A shock of sandy hair covered his head like a thatch of rain-beaten wheat. There were strange lines across his chest like healing scars, and she couldn’t look away.

He was studying her in return, and she felt her flesh raise into goosebumps when his strange eyes lit on her. She decided the feeling was a good one and tilted her chin at the stranger. She knew the water had soaked her dress and the fabric clung to her curves enticingly. It wasn’t difficult to dip her voice low and sultry. “Oh? And how exactly did I pass this test of yours?”

“You listened,” he said, and his eyes were kind. “You heard. You followed. You kept your head even when most would not, and even now you stand in the sea without a single thought of fleeing in your heart.”

“And I guess you know this from your magic?” She made her tone sarcastic to cover up her unease. Most people couldn’t hope to read her half as well. It was an ability she prided herself in, keeping her emotions under wraps and out of the way. That objectivity was the thing that made her a great doctor.

“Partly,” he answered, and he slipped back into the water. The lines at his sides opened and Lalonde caught the glint of something long and colored like burning copper under the water. When he surfaced again she caught a flash of fins.

Lalonde was… surprisingly calm. She wondered what part of her had known this in advance and had been steeling her against the blow all this time. She was a scientist. She believed in what she could see with her own eyes, and while that belief hadn’t extended to finned seamen she was more than willing to expand her horizons now that one was before her. 

She raised one skeptical eyebrow anyway, just to save face. There was still something urgent that burned at her. “If I wanted to leave, would you let me?”

“I wouldn’t do anything you didn’t ask of me first,” he answered coyly, and her face felt hot for an entirely different reason than her earlier embarrassment. 

“That wasn’t a yes,” she pointed out. Her rational wasn’t exactly in charge at the moment, but her skill at wordplay was just as sharp as ever.

“Yes,” he said simply. Lalonde believed him. His lips parted, and a twist of song twined around her and left her breathless. She tested the seafloor with one leg and felt where the sand dropped away from her. She made her choice and stepped closer anyway.

The sea held her up as she kept herself afloat with skillful strokes. Arms were suddenly around her, supporting her weight in the water. He pulled her close against himself and she laced her arms around his neck.  
“I’m not sure why I believe you,” Lalonde admitted, and his eyes were just as intense up close as they had been from several feet away.

“Your heart knows,” he said then paused to consider her. “You’re not very shocked that I have a tail.”

She let the laugh she felt bubble up through her chest. “You’re not that subtle, are you fishface?”

He frowned, but realized that she was teasing. “You’re a strange woman,” he said.

“Maybe you’re right about that,” Lalonde sighed. She could feel the heat of his slick skin under her fingers. Her legs brushed softly against scales and muscle that lay hidden out of sight. “I must be mad to be doing this.” She shut off the analytical part of her. She didn’t want to think- she wanted to feel.

“Not mad,” he said, leaning down into her. “Not mad at all.”

His mouth tasted like salt, and when she ran her fingers over the slits at his sides he shuddered. She kissed trails along his jawline and ran her hands through his damp hair. She lost her dress and undid her sensible black bra and gasped when he kissed her as gentle as the waves and twice as deep as the water around them.

Lalonde was a smart woman. She was not a believer. Her gods were the scalpel and the suture and her worship the art of piecing a body back together. Her legs were tight around his waist. When he moaned it sounded like the waves breaking. She may not have been a believer, but that night, in his arms and surrounded by a magic she couldn’t ignore, she was sure that she had died and gone to heaven. 

…

 

Lalonde wasn’t ever cut out to be a mother. Her own distant upbringing left a sour taste in her mouth at the idea of kids and nurturing. Babies were a medical nightmare and wreaked havoc on a body like nothing else. Children made her skin crawl and her smile go hard and painful.

She worked with adults for a reason. She structured her entire life around the ideal of being unsupported and independent. She drank too much, cared too little, worked too long for kids.

The mark appeared a few days after she stumbled back into her cottage wrapped only in a pilfered towel and what little was left of her dignity. It was a mad dash back to her cottage unseen and indecent. 

It was different now that the sun was up and she was back in her rooms. That night seemed an impossible dream. She began to list things she knew for certain. 

She had not been drunk, but she had been drinking. Her clothes were suspiciously absent. She remembered a man whose mouth tasted like salt and the feel of arms around her and deep water below her. She remembered what came after, but she also knew it wasn't impossible that someone at the club had slipped something nasty into her drink. Hallucinations would be easier to justify than magic songs and fishtails. 

Lalonde might have been a believer now, but she was not a believer in the unproven. She was first and foremost a doctor, and doctors notice things. She took notice of herself, of her body. 

The mark was not a bruise. In fact, she almost wished he'd been rougher with her. Marks and bruises meant he was real. But this mark came a few days after that night. It rose to the surface of her skin like spilled ink and shimmered slightly when the light glanced off of it like tiny fish scales. Two entwined symbols as one, like circling fish. A skeletal yin yang. 

She passed it off as a tattoo and retired her favorite black dress in favor of one with wider shoulder straps to cover where the mark graced the hollow beneath her collarbone. 

Her vacation ended and she went back to work. She threw herself into gunshot victims and botched suicides. She held the hand of a mother whose daughter Lalonde hadn't managed to save and she did so with her face blank and her heart walled up in steel and iron. 

Life moved on. Her suspicions grew. She was a doctor and a woman, and when she broke and took the test she already knew what its result would be but she needed to see it. She craved a false positive but a simple conformation would soothe her soul. Her heart was a raw thing, meat and blood and a drumbeat all at once. 

The test was a good one. She brought it home from the hospital after shift. It wasn't one of the instant snap tests, pee-on-a-stick deals. This one had a wait time of a half hour and needed a blood sample, but it didn't make mistakes. 

She took her time. She wanted to savor the time she had left and her hands measured out her favorite drink. She thoughtfully nursed her glass until time was up.

Her lips thinned into a small line when she read the results. 99.9% positive had never seemed so uncertain before, but she swallowed down her pride and her fear. Lalonde was strong and capable. She could do this. 

Two blue lines, slim and innocent. She wasn't the first soon-to-be single mother to stare blankly at such a thing. It couldn’t be possible.

But it was.

Her heart gave a sudden squeeze, her pulse shuddered. She dropped one hand to her lower abdomen uncertainly as she considered the martini glass in her hand. 

Could she do this? Could she handle this? Motherhood and all its great unknown impossibilities rose up to smother her.

Below her hand she imagined the baby growing, just a speck now, nothing more. A ball of rapidly dividing cells just figuring out it was destined to be something else. 

Her heart creaked, the walls she carefully built up crumbled. Her breath came in short gasps as she struggled to not break down. 

She very carefully picked up her martini in one slim hand. The drink was perfect, her favorite, and her nerves were frayed threadbare. She had never craved a drink so much in her life.

She poured it slowly into the sink and watched it swirl away down the drain. She then raided her cabinets and her closets and her shelves and gathered all of her liquor together and locked it in her hope chest. She threw away the key with the morning’s garbage, along with the used pregnancy test. When she was finished her shoulders were shaking, but there was a hard determination taken root. She could do this. A mother will do what is best for her children. 

It was so easy to love the idea of a child. To nurture, to love. Her coworkers noticed her slowly growing belly, but her business was her own and she was too good of a surgeon for them to step on her toes about it. It was easy to move on like nothing had changed.

She never went to a maternity clinic. Between the mark on her shoulder and who the father must be she stayed away. She bought her vitamins and her supplements on her own. What else was she to do but hope nothing went wrong? There was no help line for when your one time lover that knocked you up turned out to be a mythical creature. It was almost laughable. 

She knew, somehow, that this baby was different. Her belly would cramp and groan as it stretched, and she drank saltwater to ease the pain. Morning sickness felt a lot like seasickness. 

Statistically, Lalonde knew that either nothing would go wrong with the pregnancy or everything would. It was unbearable, not knowing. The first time she pressed the cold metal of her stethoscope against her own skin and heard the flutter of an unfamiliar heartbeat she left for the coast. 

She waited until nightfall and then backtracked to the cove. She stood at the edge of the leeway with her toes in the ocean. She lobbed rocks at the water and nearly screamed herself hoarse yelling for him. 

"Strider!!"

She hunted him down ruthlessly. Hell hath no fury like Dr. Lalonde in a fit. 

He was quick to reveal himself, and she nearly sighed at the first glimpse of fire eyes in the water, so sharp was her relief. It was a strong blend of emotions. He was real and she wasn't crazy and she finally could get some goddam answers to her questions. 

She still threw a rock at his face. It was a good shot and splashed down a foot from him. "You," she said, "have some explaining to do." She pulled down the collar of her shirt to reveal the mark and heard him suck in his breath. 

His eyes blazed as he came closer. "That's... well,"

She cut him off. "You're the father."

"I, you can't," his cheeks were blazing with color and his eyes were far too wide as he babbled. 

"Stop," Lalonde ordered, and there was a threat of violence in her chilly tone. "All I need to know is can I safely deliver this baby on my own?"

"Are you sure?" He asked, and his face was slowly composing itself into an arrangement of mouth and eyebrows that suggested surprise and joy. She wondered if he'd been expecting this. 

"Positive," she replied, and she couldn't help the hand that dropped to the curve of her womb. She'd seen dozens of pregnant women do this same thing. Even the ones who hadn't yet known, as soon as the word baby was mentioned both hands would go to the belly like magnets. To cover, to soothe, to protect. It was instinctive. Lalonde would protect her child. 

"Can... can I see?" He asked tentatively. 

She slid off of the rocks and into the cove fully clothed. She'd already slept with him, and her doctor’s views on personal modesty made it a clinical event as he rested one hand gently over her own. She'd felt the beginnings of stirring before, but now waist deep in the sea and under its father's hand the baby kicked for the first time. It took her breath away with wonder. She saw the change in him, how his focus reoriented itself around her softly swollen belly and the way his shoulders turned protectively to shield her from the nonexistent waves. It made her feel marginally better. 

"Has this happened before?" She asked. "I don't even know what you are." 

That part may not have been true. She knew enough. Several rabid internet searches had turned up tons of lore on mermaids and harpies and songs that lured sailors to their doom so monsters could eat their bones. Strider seemed a mashup of all of them, like bits and pieces of seafaring legends brought to life. 

"I'm a siren," he whispered, "and your child will be too."

In a way it was both great and terrible to hear. On one hand, he knew what the baby would become. On the other, she knew she couldn’t raise a marine child with scales and an affinity for saltwater. She couldn’t even imagine trying to raise a normal baby. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t damn well try.

"And yes, this has happened before. It's quite common really," he admitted, sounding faintly embarrassed. "But it's not as common from your end. Mostly it's fathers who get sung out to sea and they go about their lives none the wiser." 

It was easy to wrap her head around. Her capacity for believing had grown. "And when it's the mother that's human?"

She expected his answer like the condemned expects the axe's fall.

"They'll need the sea."

She rubbed circles around her temples with her fingertips and breathed through her nose. "I can't keep it, can I?"

"No," he said softly. His eyes were sad and looked older in his face than before. 

"Alright," she breathed, "alright. If that's what's best for them." She swallowed, and a tight ball of pain squatted in her throat. She ignored it. This wasn't about her feelings- it was about the baby's health and quality of life. Her baby's. The one she couldn't keep.

She felt like crying. She didn’t know what to feel or think. She hated herself for feeling of all things, relief. 

"What do we do?" Lalonde asked, fighting back an instinctive panic. His tail lashed behind him and sent a current of colder water wafting over her. "I'm already four months along."

"Wait until it's your time," Strider said quickly. "Then come back. I'll be waiting."

"So you'll take it?" She demanded, and her eyes were hard as diamonds with unshed tears. 

"Of course," he answered softly, bending back over her belly and trailing his fingers across the skin there. 

The pain in her throat lessened considerably. The panic began to die down. She had a plan, and she had someone to take her child in and raise them right. Raise them better than she could. She was never cut out to be a mother, what with her full time job and her alcohol problem, much less the mother of a mythical sea creature. 

"Tell me this isn't you're first kid. Please say you know how to raise a baby." She asked. 

"Yes," He looked away. "I have a son," he answered. "He's a good kid. He just turned two. My wife died with having him." His own voice was tight with emotion. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but it's just me and him. I didn't want him to grow up alone."

With a snap, Lalonde understood. She understood exactly what had happened. 

Objectively, she understood. She knew exactly how far she would go to ensure the best for her unborn baby. How far would he go to ensure the one he had grew up happy and normal? Where did that leave her?

She'd been used. The realization hurt like salt rubbed into a wound. She wanted to scream. 

"Why me?" She asked, soft. She was a pane of glass. Clear, but breakable. She felt like shattering. 

Out of any drunk girl that could have wandered by-why her? Was she just easily seduced? Foolish and gullible enough?

"No one else heard my call," he said, "no one else answered." 

She closed her eyes. What's done is done. That just left them, two people trying to do the best for their children.

Five months passed quickly. Lalonde waddled towards the end, her hips swung low and wide. Her breasts grew heavy and her belly round and firm. She had a nagging suspicion that there were two babies wiggling away inside of her, one heartbeat shadowing the fainter second. There was no way to be sure without further investigation that she couldn’t risk this late in the game. 

Her coworkers tried to secretly plan her a baby shower. She found out within the hour of the event. They were good friends, but they didn’t understand. She told them plainly that she wasn’t going to keep the baby, that she was giving it up for adoption and already had a new family chosen. All of her information would be stricken from the adoption records. They understood, in a kind but distant way. She was a brilliant young doctor. Truly she had no time to raise a child on her own. When she said she didn’t ask about the baby’s gender to make it easier on herself they stopped bugging her about it. 

She still caught a glimpse of baby blue and soft pink confetti in the trashcans later that afternoon and she nearly cried. It was easier for her to cry now with her hormones surging. She took two months off of work. And used up the rest of her stockpiled vacation days.

No one dared to mention the exaggerated leave of absence. Physical ordeal aside, they knew Lalonde was in for an emotional rollercoaster. She wanted to get all of her bases covered before the shoe fell.

She left a week early and rented out the same cottage as before. She was growing fond of it. Waking in the mornings to the scent of brine made her knees feel like they weren’t about to drop off and revolt against her. She cleaned the entire house from top to bottom, aware that she was cleaning as a symptom of nesting syndrome and that her time was growing nearer. She had planned this out correctly after all. Her due date came and went with no changes. Each morning and afternoon she walked the beach down to the cove and felt his eyes lingering on her from where he hid beyond the surf, and each time she walked back to her cottage alone.

She felt the first hesitant contractions four days late. In a normal pregnancy this was just approaching the worrying period where inducement would be introduced to hurry things along. No one wanted a stillbirth and a shot of oxytocin normally did the trick. Lalonde had no access to such medicines, and the idea of a natural birth was terrifying.

She was a doctor. She believed in the power of drugs and bleach and a sterile environment and a host of highly trained staff on hand for if something went wrong. The knowledge that she was about to do this entirely on her own was unimaginable in today’s day and age. But she had been studying this for months. She had her breathing techniques down to a fine art, and when she left she carried a small medical kit with her in a waterproof bag.

She had kept calm and waited in her cottage until shifting her hips couldn’t ease the growing pressure and the contractions were steady. No false alarm this time. Her water broke just when she reached the cove.  
Her breath came in pants, but her pain eased up the instant she touched the ocean. She crawled into the low surf of the leeway, waded far out and deep as she could manage, and braced her spine against a smooth bolder. She did not call for Strider. She was confident he would find her.

The sun had not yet set. Her pain was rising and so was her panic when she caught sight of something streak towards her under the water.

She had never seen him in daylight before and his skin was darker, his hair paler. The full red-orange length of his tail glimmered. His scales flashed like shiny new pennies and she could see all of the fins he’d been keeping hidden. His eyes were bright fire.

“Shhh, it’s okay, you’re okay,” he said, stopping a good distance away from where she squatted in the sea. The water here was too shallow for his swimming, but he didn’t hesitate in drawing himself up to her position. “How are you doing?”

She spared a second of her intense concentration to scowl at him. Her knees shook. “How do you bloody think I’m doing?” She snapped as she rode out another close contraction, counting the seconds between them. Seven seconds. Not yet, not quite yet.

He knelt over her with his arms, one going around her shoulders as he gently repositioned her so that he could help. One fell across her tight belly as it heaved. His arm supported her back and she dug her nails hard into the meat of his arm as she hissed out a breath of pain.

His lips graced her ear and he hummed softly to her. At the sound her head cleared and her vision sharpened. The pain disintegrated, and she uncurled her fingers from him.

“Shhhh,” he said again, “Shhhhhh.” She couldn’t tell the difference between his voice and the sound of the sea. They were one and the same. Without the pain she could rationalize better. She could concentrate on what needed to be done. It was simple. Her body knew what to do perfectly. This memory had been passed down mother to daughter, mother from mother, all the way up the generations. A legacy of motherhood. She could do this.

When she counted three seconds, she began to push, to bear down against the unbearable ache and press. Strider held her steady and crooned into her ear the entire time. He kept the pain at bay, and when she gasped and nearly bit through her lower lip his free hand fell to her spread thighs.

After the first gush of blood and triumph, she had a minute of rest. Just enough time to break her breathing cycle to spit a warning at him through clenched teeth. “Wait, I think there’s two of them.”

“What!”

Her fingernails drew blood as she raked them across his shoulder. His focus was torn three ways.

The second time was harder, rougher. Things tore and ripped, but at last her battered womb was empty. She savored the unfamiliar sensation for a minute as she caught her breath. She felt wrung-out. A deflated balloon. But she was nearly giddy with relief as she clawed her way upright. “Show me.”

Two tiny perfect babies lay in his hands. Small and still tightly curled. The sea quickly washed away the blood and the slime and left their peachy skin behind. The palest, thinnest fuzz topped their heads.

One was a dark lavender, the color of sunsets after a storm. One was red as blood, the color of crimson and rubies. She could easily fit them both in one arm. They were smaller than a full-term human, but well on par for twins.

She looked into their scrunched up faces and felt her heart melt. Everything in her went gooey and hard all at once. A storm of fire and flood. _Hers. Not hers. Hers._ They looked healthy, and each had a scaled tail swapped for legs and toes. Under her fingertips the scales felt like velvet. They were beautiful.

“Easy,” Strider said, and his hand fell across her arm and slowly guided it down until the water lapped at them. A large part of her wanted to snatch them out of the ocean and bundle them to her chest, but the almost invisible lines across their tiny ribs opened and they each made a face of surprise. Each little Cupid’s bow mouth formed a tiny O of shock and they squirmed and squirmed in her arms until she fought her every deepest instinct back and let the water slip higher to cover their faces. 

She held her tight breath until she felt Strider relax beside her and draw in a breath every bit as shaky as her own. In her arms, the babies quieted down, breathing evenly in their own special way.

“Oh Skaia,” he whispered revenantly. “Twins.” His voice was a thing of wonder. 

Lalonde ached in places she didn’t know could ache. She had sand in unspeakable places and her hair was a snarl of knots and wind-tossed strands. “Twins,” she confirmed. 

“What will you name them?” He asked.

“What can I name them?” She mused thoughtfully. One clung to her finger with a baby’s grip when she offered it to them.

He laughed breathlessly. “Whatever you’d like.”

She considered them, these precious things she and this man had managed to make together. Sirens. Things of the sea.

She wanted them to carry human names. She liked the idea of them carrying that scrap of her with them.

“Rose,” she named her lavender daughter, “And Dave,” She named her red son.

“They’re perfect,” Strider whispered, and the sun hung low over the water and set with shades of burnt orange and pink ocher in the clouds.

Lalonde turned to him sharply. She was holding her children in her arms for the first and last time.

“Promise me,” she demanded, “Promise me that you’ll take care of them. Swear to it. Swear you’ll raise them right.” Her voice shook and she hurt with a pain that couldn’t be sung away. 

Strider reached out wordlessly and eased Rose and Dave into his arms. He cradled them close to his chest like they were spun glass. He stretched out his arms and bowed his head over the pair of them like a supplicant before the altar. “I swear it,” he vowed. “They will want for nothing. The sea and all her charms belong to them. They are each more precious to me than all the treasures of the deep. I will love them each without equal.”

She tasted tears in the back of her mouth. “Good,” she swallowed. “Because if you don’t, I’ll hunt you down myself and cut off your fins.”

“I’d expect nothing else,” he replied solemnly.

“Will I get to see them again?” She asked with a fear that settled deep in her bones. She braced herself for the pain of his answer.

“Yes,” he promised, and her eyes widened. “There’s a place where sirens and humans can meet. I can promise to take them there once they’re strong enough for the journey. It’s a safe place for everyone.”

“How long?” she asked, and she nodded through his answer. If this is what it takes to keep them safe and let them grow strong, she would bear the price with pride, for she had worked miracles and seen magic and she would hold onto her hope all the way across the sea to them once more.

Five years flew by quickly. Lalonde had waited years before, for grad school, for her degree. She could manage this wait even better for its prize was more important than any doctorate. 

With time her coworkers forgot about her mystery child. She returned to work as if nothing was wrong, but within her something burned fiercely. She held her goal in sight as the months ticked down to one summer five years after her twins were born.

She bought her first plane tickets and packed lightly. She had a place and a time and the name of the boat that would take her there. That was all, but she prayed that it would be enough. She collected the first stamp on her passport and stepped off of the plane in the Canary Islands. She then left by boat to a much smaller island chain, further west than the Canaries. Smaller, more secluded.

The villages were small and many. Lalonde has brushed up on her French and Spanish in preparation, but her language skills remained pitiful and kept to standard phrases such as “Can I eat here” and “does this look infected”. She did manage to track down the proper boat in time and her heart was pounding away inside of her. 

The ship was a small one. Rusty. Creaking. A fully rigged vessel whose sails snapped in the heady sea breeze like a ship out of a movie. The _Wayward Vagabond_ was a thrown together deathtrap that listed to the side as she stared at it, but it was taking passengers. Mostly women, dressed as her and carrying light luggage.

She approached the vessel. A black skinned man with a chest length white beard stopped her and grunted in passable English. “Ticket.”

Lalonde froze. What did he mean by ticket? She checked the name of the boat against her memories and was sure this was it. The _WV_. She couldn’t read this man’s deep-set eyes. 

She clutched at her bag, her fingers tight.

“Ticket or no boat,” the man said kindly. “VIP only.”

She seized the hint. This barely seaworthy craft could never have been a red carpet event, so VIP could only mean one thing. She lowered the collar of her blouse so that the black mark flashed in the sunlight beneath her collarbone. Cancer, the sign of the tropics.

The man grunted again and stepped aside, his head nodding. “This way, modder.”

She gratefully walked onboard. The deck rolled beneath her feet with a heave as the ship cast off. Her relief was as strong as it was soothing. 

The other passengers kept to themselves at first, chattering away in a variety of foreign tongues. When they noticed Lalonde on her own the group of women shifted to envelope her. An older woman with a wide-brimmed hat swept her up. Her face was matronly and fine wrinkles lined her cheeks in crevices of age. “First time?” She asked kindly.

“I don’t understand,” Lalonde said shifty. Her secret hummed inside her chest with the ache of being so long hidden.

“First time to the island,” the woman clarified. “I know most everyone who’ll be there. But not you.”

“Do I look lost?” Lalonde snapped defensively. 

“You do,” the woman answered without pause, and Lalonde froze as she went on. “You look a little green around the gills, child. Peace. How old will yours be?” The woman rolled down her shirt to reveal a familiar sign that graced her wrinkled skin. “Don’t worry dear, you’re among friends now.”

Lalonde paused. “All of them?” She asked, gesturing to the dozen other women on board. 

“All of them,” the older woman replied. “Yourself included. How old will yours be?”

“Five,” Lalonde said, her heart easing as she grasped the scope of this new discovery. “A set of twins, boy and girl.”

The older woman raised her eyebrows as she fanned herself. “Twins? Dear heavens child, come here.” The woman tugged her forward. “I’m called Rosa. I’ve been coming here for forty years. My son is grown now, but I keep coming to see my grandchildren. I’ve got two of them, both fine young people.” She looked sideways, “Fins and all.”

Lalonde felt herself smile with wonder as she was introduced to the other mothers. They accepted her as one of their own easily with an open-armed grace. There was no pattern to them, young, old, race. The boat chased the setting sun.

“The island is a secret,” Rosa whispered to her, “No one speaks its name, but once a year all the sirens of the sea who can make the trip gather there.”

“I’m still a tad bit shocked,” Lalonde admitted. “Why do they gather?”

Rosa shrugged her bony shoulders. “To meet each other. To share stories, see family. The oceans of the world are wide and deep. They need a place to all get together.”

“And they invite us?”

“Do you know what this mark means?” Rosa asked, tapping at her own. “It marks you as the carrier of one of theirs. Sirens can never leave the sea, their magic is tied too strongly to the waters. Even in the womb they cannot be over dry land without this mark. See how it shines?” The blackness of the ink glimmered with its elusive shimmer. “It’s a counter-curse. A little bit of magic right there for us.”

“I never knew,” Lalonde admitted. “I thought it had to do with him, but I never knew its use.”

“Its vital,” Rosa said, and the breeze ran through her wispy gray hair. “Without it, no children would live. Once they’re gone the magic stays behind with us. Some say it grants good luck and a long life.”

Lalonde was liking this grandmotherly matron even more. She appreciated the lesson from a knowledgeable teacher. “How long until we get there?”

“Once the sun falls we have only a little ways left to go,” Rosa sat back against the railing and spread out her green dress around her like a cloud. “Come, child. My bones ache with standing so long and I want to hear how you handled bearing twins.”

The night wore on, and with each passing second Lalonde felt more at home. She hadn’t been near the sea since Dave and Rose had been born, and she hadn’t felt so included in years. Her coworkers and friends were one thing, but these women around her shared a single story. She felt like she belonged.

The island was beautiful under the moonlight. Low and flat and lined with palm trees and strung with lines of Christmas lights that twinkled from trunk to trunk. The island was shaped like a crescent moon around a shallow bay of white sand and coral. Even in the darkness the water flashed with color and she felt the buzz of a familiar magic. _Sirens._

Rosa caught her shoulder just as the boat touched the sand. “If you don’t find them, don’t worry. It’ll be several days still until everyone has arrived.”

Lalonde grasped her hand. “Thank you,” she said.

The old woman bowed her head graciously. “No, thank you.”

The beach already had several people milling around on it. Most were in the water, both human and not. She saw more colors of fish tails that she could have ever imagined just on the walk from the boat to the hammocks in the trees. Blue and green and gold.

But none the color of the setting sun. She gritted her teeth as scraps of greetings and cries of joy surrounded her. Strider had better be here. She had a nice jar on her desk for his fins if he didn’t show. 

She slept in a hammock beside the sea as wind swayed through the fronds above her. The air itself was thick with magic. She tried to make friends, and found the task was far easier than she had thought it would be. She was glad to wade out into the warm water and ended up babysitting a trio of siren children maybe three years old and a mix of blue and green. She had never looked after children before, much less as a guardian, but somehow she was more than willing. Excited, even. They were a handful. Anytime she glanced away one would take off through the water in a flash. She rolled her eyes. Kids would always be kids no matter the species. At least she didn’t have to worry about anyone drowning. 

As the day passed without sight of Strider, Lalonde could admit that even then she was having fun. This was amazing. She met more people and sirens and children than she could count. There were around three hundred sirens and over dozen-odd humans, including two men and the Vagabond’s grizzled captain. The water was crystal clear and full of ocean life. A large green turtle stopped by and the kids swarmed it with glee. She saw manta rays and an octopus and fish longer than her arm.

Lalonde saw the glint of red and violet before she saw the familiar head of sandy pale hair and red copper scales. Her heart jumped into her throat with a lurch. There, sliding through the clear surf. She could see them. Her children.

Her joints were frozen. Her wet skin was electric. She saw Strider meet her eyes before he dipped low and whispered something to their kids as the small group swam over.

They were five years old. Strider hadn’t changed much with the time, but her eyes were all for her kids.

Rose had her aquiline nose with its small upturned end. She had her rounded jawline and large eyes. Lalonde could see her own face in her daughter’s. Dave was like a tiny version of his father, but she could see the angle of her eyebrows hidden under his pale hair. It didn’t matter that it had been five long years. It didn’t matter that she had never seen them outside of her arms and her dreams. Her heart nearly exploded with love.

She met the other two as well. Dirk was two years older than his siblings and his scales were a much brighter and clearer orange than his father’s shade, the color at last pure. Dirk and Dave looked so much alike they could have been the twins. 

The smallest one was a surprise. A tiny girl the same age as her own.

“Roxy,” Strider clarified softly as they watched their children twist and turn and chase each other under the water. “My sister’s. I took her in after she was lost.”

She didn’t ask about whatever tragedy had made the girl an orphan. “It’s a good thing you have her then,” Lalonde offered. “Four is quite a handful.”

“They’re good kids, all of them.” Strider didn’t hide the pride in his voice. “I wouldn’t trade this for anything.”

“I know,” Lalonde said, her arms full of her children. 

The boat ride back was easier.

Lalonde left her twins behind in the care of their father with the promise of returning in a few years as she returned to the Pacific coast. The several thousand mile trip was easy for her and she understood why they could only make the swim every five years.

It was easier after seeing her children happy and healthy and shining like the little kids they were. Rose had given her a small shell the same color as her tail. Lalonde was never letting it out of her sight. She was quick to adopt Dirk and Roxy into her heart as well. After so long spent agonizing about whether she made the right choice, whether all of her pain was worth it, whether or not she regretted everything, Lalonde finally had her answer.

If she could, she would do it all again. Everything. All of her doubts and fears crumbled away at the sight of her twins. The knowledge sent a deep peace throughout her system.

Lalonde had four children. Two that were hers and two that were not. It didn’t matter that they had scales and gills. The time between when she could see them and hold them in her arms didn’t matter.

She was a mother.

…

 

Lalonde wasn’t a fighter in the normal sense. She battled infections and cancer armed with only a scalpel and toxic levels of radiation. She wrestled life out of the jaws of death on a daily basis. For many patients Lalonde was all that stood between their soul and eternal sleep and she gritted her teeth and grabbed hold of their aging and broken bodies and held tight. She pulled. She swore. She ached and bled.

She gave them the tools and the means to fight for themselves. Healing was an uphill battleground. Lives were lost every day. She was a soldier on the front lines of virulent infections and parasitic invasions and the never ending tide of domestic abuse. Her weapons were prescriptions and a suturing kit. 

The cloud that had been hanging over her head since that first night had evaporated. She took joy in her work again. She took pride in saving lives. She rescued a lazy dog that welcomed her home every night after shift. She cut her hair short and wore clothes outside of a lab coat more often. She smiled more and for once felt like her life was on track. There were only a few weeks to go before she could see her beloved children again.

She was working late again the night she was followed home. She knew her shadow was stalking her the entire time. Her skin crawled with the feeling of being watched. She locked her door behind her and contemplated calling the police when whoever her stalker was knocked at the wood.

Lalonde glanced through the peephole to see a young lady in clear distress. Lalonde opened the door out of instinct. If the girl had been in an accident maybe she could offer help.

“Can I come in?” The stranger asked. Her hair was long and straight and done up in a tightly wound bun. Two long pins secured it against the nape of her neck and her doll’s face was pretty in an exotic manner. Her floor-length green gown was beautiful and its style simple and elegant. The hem was stained with mud and clay.

“Do I know you?” Lalonde asked curiously as she inspected the girl for wounds. Nothing. 

“No,” she answered. “But you can help me.”

Something warned Lalonde as electricity crawled up her spine. She wanted to close the door in this woman’s face. The mark on her collarbone burned.

The woman shoved past her and closed the door. Lalonde backed away and seized a heavy bookend as a weapon.

The girl held up a hand. “Please, I’m not here to hurt you.” Lalonde didn’t believe that for a second. Home invaders always wanted to hurt people. She’d stitched up enough of the lucky ones to know that for a fact.  
“Then why are you here?” Lalonde challenged. “I’m not afraid to use this.” She warned, hefting the blunt object.

“I’m looking for answers.” The girl said slyly. “You see, I’ve been tracking something.”

“I’m not a bloodhound,” Lalonde snapped angrily. “Now get out of my house.”

The woman pulled down the collar of her suit dress to reveal a familiar dark mark like a tattoo. It shimmered even in the lamplight. “You see,” she said as Lalonde froze, “I’m like you.”

“What do you want?” Lalonde asked. She didn’t trust this stranger even with the mark she wore. “How did you find me?”

“Your passport has only one trip on the records, five years ago.” The woman said simply. “Just last month you booked a second trip to the Canaries.” Lalonde felt her blood run cold. The woman went on. “And then there’s your phone records. I’ve known about Rosa for years.”

She and Rosa spoke once a month. Rosa would never had given this woman with dark and sly eyes her housing address. The stranger was a threat, Lalonde cold feel it in her bones.

“What have you done with Rosa?” she challenged, vying for an intellectual upper hand in this fight. 

The woman smiled thinly. “Nothing that whore didn’t deserve.”

It was a punch to the gut. Her blood ran cold, then stopped all together. Lalonde thought she might throw up. “Why?” She swallowed, raising the bookend. Her hands, hands that could perform the most complex of operations without a single tremor, shook wildly. 

“Because she was a liar!” The woman spat, her face wild and her eyes wide. “She helped corrupt and brainwash victims of rape into thinking everything was fine. She helped hide stolen babies from their rightful parents. That woman is just as guilty as the monsters she serves.”

“But,” Lalonde stammered, stunned. “But you bear the mark. You’re one of us.”

“I am Damara Megido and I am nothing like you.” The woman said, and her face was too young to hold the hate Lalonde could see in her eyes. She reached up and pulled both of the hair ornaments she wore out of her bun so that all of her black hair fell straight around her shoulders. She held the two short knives in her hands. “Where is the island?”

“I’ll never tell.” Lalonde promised, steeling herself. Her children were in danger. This woman was a threat to them. Lalonde couldn’t let her leave. 

“Rosa said that same thing,” Damara sighed as she brought the two knives around. “She died on me before I could slice the answer out of her. I’ll be more careful with you,” she promised.

“Why?” Lalonde would not plead. Her voice was an order. Rage choked its way up the back of her throat in a hot and bitter mess. She tasted red on her tongue. Her vision sharpened, strength poured into her limbs as she waited for her chance to attack.

Once, she swore an oath to do no harm. Lalonde was going to break that oath. She was going to rip and tear and claw that oath to pieces to protect her family and spit on its ashes. She wouldn’t go down without a fight. 

“Why not?” Damara challenged haughtily. Her face was like ice and fire all at once. “I was assaulted, drugged by magic, and forcefully impregnated by a devil. I’m going to rid the world of them. I’m going to save every girl like me from their claws.” She leaned closer, like she was sharing a secret. “I am going to kill them all,” she whispered. “To save all the girls like us.”

Lalonde spat at her, grinning a wild, mad grin that bared teeth. “I loved him willingly—and I don’t regret it.”

Megido scoffed at the words. “Whore.”

Lalonde had never so much as brawled before. She had never thrown a punch. But she didn’t hesitate as she threw the bookend for the other woman’s head, intending to cause as much trauma and bodily damage as she possible could. She’d kill this woman to protect her family. She had to.

The woman was too fast. She ducked the projectile with ease. In an instant her fingers locked around Lalonde’s throat. The doctor head-butted her and felt the crunch of bone. Blood dripped onto her face as Damara laughed.

“Where is the island?” Damara asked calmly. Lalonde twisted and writhed like a wildcat in her grip, her lungs screaming from lack of air. Damara only squeezed tighter. “Where is the island?” She repeated, blood gushing from her broken nose. “I know Skaia is near the Canaries, tell me where it is.” 

“Go to hell,” Lalonde choked out, gasping as she clawed at the woman’s face with her nails. Damara shrieked and snapped her head back against the floor until Lalonde saw stars. Everyone she loved was in danger. She fought harder. She couldn’t breathe.

With a choked gasp she felt the hands leave her throat and heaved in a breath that rattled on its way down.

“Last chance,” Damara said. Lalonde raised her eyes at the woman standing above her, then her middle finger. Her throat was too crushed for speech, but her legs still worked as she viciously struck out at Damara’s left knee and connected solidly with her kneecap. The girl screamed as her knee was hyperextended and ligaments tore and snapped. Lalonde let out a maddened laugh of triumph as Damara fell and tackled her to the ground. She crashed through the glass sitting table and shards went everywhere.

Lalonde had the upper hand. Her fingers scrabbled for a large enough shard. Her hands were bloody.

Her laughter died as a cold knife slid deep into her gut. Damara’s eyes blazed, her face a bloody mess of glass as she hissed, “If you love them so much, then you can go to hell with the rest of them.”

Pain exploded along Lalonde’s spine as a knife took her in a kidney. She screamed and screamed, still clawing for Damara’s eyes as the knife rose and fell again and again, until her strength poured out of her in a flood as her eyes closed.

She woke up in her hospital. She hadn’t expected to wake up at all. Her throat was collared and braced. Her breath hissed through tubes and her head felt crammed full of fog.

Her slim fingers found the call button and instantly her fellow doctor appeared at her side.

“Dr. Lalonde! You’re awake!” The doctor cried with relief and fear. “We were so worried.”

Lalonde hissed out a pained noise from between her clenched teeth. The doctor upped her pain pump in response. “Your home was invaded,” she informed the battered doctor. “You were stabbed a dozen times. You lost a lot of blood, a kidney, and cracked your skull, but you should recover.”

Lalonde hissed again, her hands in claws. She pushed her pain to the side. It wasn’t important. 

“Would you like some water?”

She shook her head as much as the brace would allow. “Phone,” she ordered, forcing the words through her voice box like razorblades.

The doctor handed her a personal cell as she whispered conspiratorially. “We know you put up one hell of a good fight. Your place was thrashed and a lot of the blood at the scene wasn’t yours. The police will have lots of questions.”

Lalonde ignored her chatter as she punched in Rosa’s number and waited for the tone. There was only one thing on her mind. The phone rang and rang and rang.

She hung up and felt tears in her eyes as a full-bodied panic clawed its way up her chest. Her shoulders shook with restrained sobs. The date on the illuminated phone screen showed the 21st. She had been unconscious for nine days. The island meeting time had come and gone.

She called again, her fingers shaking.

Rosa never answered.

It took five months for her to make it to the island. Five months to recover, regain her strength, board a plane, steal a boat, and travel there herself. She had to see it with her own eyes.

The island of Skaia had been razed. It had been almost half a year and the sand was still black with ash. The trees had been torn down for fuel. There was nothing green left, just charcoal and ash and oil. The _Vagabond_ listed in the water on its side, a hole blown through her sturdy hull. Blue barrels cluttered the shore from where they had been hacked open and oil dumped into the bay and set alight. The water was still poisoned from it, a toxic sludge, and all of the coral was dead and crumbling. The fish were long gone. The air itself was still and dead.

Lalonde stopped looking when she found the charred pile of bones at the center of the massacre. 

She knelt down and grasped at a child’s burnt skull, so small, and she cried until she had nothing left.

When she rose, she was different. Lalonde the doctor was gone. She burned that part of herself and laid it to rest on the ash heap with the others.

Lalonde was a believer. Lalonde was a mother. Lalonde was a fighter.

Lalonde had a bone to pick with this Damara Megido and her hunters.

Lalonde was a hunter now as well, and she was going to kill them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full summary will be found below!
> 
> Dr. Lalonde, a skilled surgeon, goes on a well deserved vacation to the beach where she encounters the siren Strider. They have a one night stand and a few weeks later Lalonde discovers that she's pregnant. she confronts Strider, who tells her that the baby will be a siren and explains that its not that uncommon for this kind of thing to happen. He also promises to raise the child, swearing it.
> 
> Much reassured but still uncertain, Dr. Lalonde returns home for the rest of her gestation and tries to focus on her work. When the time comes and with the nagging suspicion that she's carrying twins, Dr. Lalonde returns to the beach and gives birth to twins with Strider's help. She names the babies Rose and Dave, and learns that Strider also has a son named Dirk.
> 
> struck with the realization that she cannot kee her new children, she gives them over to Strider's care with the promise to meet them again in five years at a special magical island named Skaia, a place where all sirens can gather in peace with humans who know about them.
> 
> Those five years pass quickly, and Dr. Lalonde eagerly heads to the island right on schedule. On the boat she meets an older woman named Rosa and the pair swap stories and become friends. Once at the island, Lalonde reunited with her children and welcomes both Dirk and Roxy into her heart as well. All is well. Dr. Lalonde realizes that she doesn't regret anything that happened to her, and that she'd do anything for her children.
> 
> She goes back home to her work with another promise to meet at the island in five years. Time passes quickly, with Lalonde taking pride in her work again. As the date for her return trip to Skaia she's confronted by a strange woman who entered her house without permission. The woman bears the same siren-mark as Lalonde does, as does everyone deemed worthy of knowing the secret of sirens. Still, Lalonde doesn;t trust this stranger, who reveals herself to be Damara Megido. Damara has been hunting for Skaia and demands that Lalonde tell her where it is. 
> 
> Sensing danger, Lalonde refuses and the women fight, ending with Lalonde being stabbed over a dozen times after Damara brags about killing Rosa. Lalonde wakes up in her own hospital, and realizing the danger she's in, makes her way to the island as soon as possible.
> 
> It's far too late to help, and all she finds are ash and bones. Skaia is dead and so are the sirens who lived there. The Intermission ends with Dr. Lalonde believing her children are dead and vowing vengeance on Damara Megido and all the hunters who work for her. 
> 
> End of summary. 
> 
> Actual notes below-
> 
> OMG WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED???? WHAT DID I JUST WRITE????
> 
> Ironically this was the first thing I ever wrote for this fic. I wrote all of the intermissions first and then filled in what happens around them. Story-wise this explains a lot of the family backgrounds of the characters as well as hints at what happened that day on the island. We also get to see Dave and Rose's mother and are introduced to her as a character. While the intermission does deal with a lot of heavy topics, I feel like it's a good introduction to the much wider plot thats going on. This story isn't stuck to Dave and Karkat on Hellmurder-- there's so much that's going on in this world and its important to realize that the narrative isn't restrained to just that one island. 
> 
> Oh, and Strider the siren dad is not Bro. Bro was not invited to this fic. At all. While every other major/minor hs character should eventually appear, not him.
> 
> So I'll get to posting Act One, Part Two soon as the narrative jumps back to Karkat and Dave's perspective. Just a reminder, this will be a very long fic with lots of story lines going on at once. 
> 
> So to break my hiatus, why not drop a metaphorical bomb on this story? If anything it serves to jump-start the plot which so far has had only one major conflict point to date. From this point on-- its game time for this story. Let's go!!!
> 
> Also let me know if I need to add more tags. I think I covered everything but I can always add more if need be.
> 
> :)


	12. Act One, Part Two, Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while but here I am back with the next installment of this ongoing masterpiece of a fic! We've finally hit act one, part two!
> 
> This is the start of Act One, Part Two, and it takes place immediately after the end of Act One, Part One. Only the intermissions will be told out of the main timeline-- everything else is linear. 
> 
> Last time we saw our crew of wayward sirens and bullheaded teenagers Dave had just been shot by grandpa Harley. So the question is... What happens next?

Dave had fully bounced back from getting shot by the end of the week. Porrim had to remove the stitches after only three days and now the wound was nothing but a new scar. Karkat couldn’t say how relieved he was that Dave had healed from what he considered one of the bigger fuck ups of his life.

It was hard to avoid Mr. Harley after that. He still moved about the house, and somehow Karkat knew that Porrim confiscating every gun in the house with Jade and Jake’s help hadn’t disarmed the old man in the least. The man all but mixed black powder into his morning coffee. Mr. Harley was old world, a hardened survivalist explorer, and Karkat just knew that he had other weapons squirreled away somewhere. 

The idea wasn’t a pleasant one. He’d already seen enough of Dave’s blood to last a lifetime and Karkat wasn’t about to let another friend get shot on his watch.

“Why do you think he did it?” Karkat asked Jake. The other boy was the more affected of the two Harley/English kids. Jake had idolized his grandfather. Karkat knew from the crease between his green eyes how much the recent events had hurt him. Jake wasn’t as… vibrant, as he normally was. He moved around like he had the wind knocked out of him.

Jake just shrugged. “I swear he’s not a bad bloke,” he said. “I just can’t quite wrap my mind around it.”

Karkat bit back the instinctive and scathing remark he had on the end of his tongue. Jake just looked so miserable and if anything, Karkat couldn’t stand so see someone he considered a friend in distress.

“Me either,” Karkat said.

“I reckon he must have been scared,” Jake answered slowly. “That’s the only explanation I can think of. He’d never act out of hatred or anger, but fear? I can imagine him pulling a gun if he thought one of us was in danger.”

The bad thing was so could Karkat. He understood the drive to protect loved ones at any cost. If the situation had been reversed he might have done the exact same thing. Secrets piled on secrets, and when it all came crashing down someone had gotten hurt.

“We were idiots to keep it from them, both him and Porrim,” Karkat exhaled angrily. “If we’d been honest from the start this never would have happened.”

“I’m glad it did, in a way,” Jake said, and Karkat nearly swiped at him. “Wait, let me explain,” Jake quickly rushed to protected himself from imminent verbal annihilation. “It’s just, Granddad’s always been a tad extreme. He rushes into action and takes the bull by the horns. It’s altogether too likely that in a different scenario he would have gotten his way.” Jake sighed and looked away. “And now he’s been knocked right off his pedestal in a bad way. He’s all out of sorts now.”

“What does Jade think?” Karkat asked cautiously. 

“She’s… Jade’s not speaking to him,” Jake winced. “I’ve never seen her so furious about something before. Scary stuff.”

“I’ll bet,” Karkat said, but a plan was forming in his mind. “Do you know where he is? I’d like to talk with him.”

Jake gave him a sideways glance. “Why for?”

“I just want to understand,” Karkat said, “I swear I’ll even be nice about it.”

“That might help a little,” Jake admitted. “I know he feels shameful about the whole affair. I’d bet he’d take it back if he could.” Jake paused and put up one foot to tighten the laces of his boot. “He’s in the central office last I saw him,” he said. “Good luck, Karkat.”

“Thanks, Jake,” He answered, and headed up the stairs. The house was squat but the center rose into a high tower topped with an observatory from Mr. Harley’s old explorer days. The top floor was off-limits as the domain of the elusive old globe-trotter. Karkat made sure to make a lot of noise as he stomped up the narrow stairs. He didn’t want the old man to gut him with a letter opener by mistake if he just barged in.

The door creaked open when Karkat turned the handle. “Mr. Harley?” he called out “I’m here to talk. It’s time for you to quit sulking about up here and get with the program.”

Karkat could be tactful, sure. Just not right now.

The room was open and the windows were high. Dust motes danced in the air. The room was filled with old globes and suits of armor, and taxidermy animal heads adorned the walls. Karkat felt their glass eyes following him. Great. Just what he fucking needed, dead shit staring at him.

Mr. Harley was seated at a small table. The white tablecloth matched his impeccable waistcoat and his cane was laid across the top of the table as he furiously polished a copper pocket watch with a handkerchief. He didn’t look anything like the cowed old man from the beach who limped back like a beaten dog. He raised a single gray eyebrow at Karkat’s noisy entrance like a noble on his throne eyeing a peasant worker who’d just spilled red wine on the linens. Karkat gritted his teeth, resolved to this hell already.

“Mr. Vantas,” Harley said, faintly shocked. His hands stilled and he checked his reflection in the watch’s crystal face. “I was not expecting you.”

“It’s Karkat,” he answered shortly. “Just Karkat.”

“Karkat then,” the old man said, “To what do I owe this fine meeting?”

Karkat narrowed his eyes. If Harley wanted to play mind games and dance around the subject he was wasting his breath. Dealing with Terezi had taught him to be… blunt. No one was better at mind games than her. No one. 

“You shot an unarmed teen,” Karkat shrugged, “Then held me at gunpoint. I thought I deserved an explanation.”

“Mmm,” Mr. Harley made a small noise, “I had an inkling that’s why you were here.” He firmly set the watch down onto the tabletop. “I do suppose that I rightly buggered that right up, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, you did,” Karkat said, huffing.

“How is the fellow doing?” Harley asked. His voice was flat and even. Karkat couldn’t glean anything from it.

Hair rose at the back of his neck. “Dave’s fine,” Karkat answered. “You didn’t hurt him in a way that stuck.”

“And his… sister?” Mr. Harley asked, hesitating over the word like its taste was sour.

“Also fine,” Karkat said, “but that’s not why I’m here. I want to know why you did it.”

Mr. Harley laced his fingers together under his chin and rested his arms against the table. Abruptly his eyes looked old again, the lines around them deep and craggy. “I’ve lived in a lot of places,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of things. I could tell what was happening to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve seen it before,” the man said, “When they sung the sense right out of the Peregrine Mendicant’s navigator.” The man sighed and leaned back once more. His eyes were uncomfortably keen. “Every sailor hears tales about them, whispered around a strong drink at night when the winds drop down. I’ve never seen them myself, but when the navigator- what was his name? I can’t recall. Anyway, we all knew what was happening when he started talking about the voices calling out to him.”

Karkat didn’t break eye contact.

“Sirens,” the man continued, “legends of the deep. Man eaters and magic users, as capricious and secretive as the sea herself. I had to watch as they toyed with us all and drove the poor bastard mad until he flung himself overboard to them. We had to stuff our ears with candlewax to stay sane,” he said, “And Halley knew. That dog always knows— Best animal for it. I saw when you started sneaking off alone and slipping back with wet hair and salt crusted under your nails. I thought they’d gotten their hooks in you, just like years before.” Harley signed, agitated. “And Halley kept pacing the door and whining, and I’d known you all were at the beach and I just knew they were going to get to you too and take you away from us, just like last time.”

“You were wrong,” Karkat said. His hands clenched into fists at his sides. His mind was his own. No spell dared to cloud his thinking.

“Was I?” Harley countered. “Can you truly say that you’re not being manipulated?”

Karkat remembered the buzz of magic, sharkskin under his fingers. A single word, and the way all thoughts of moving fled as his joints locked against his will. Stop. Dave had stolen his will once. Karkat knew how it felt- helpless and suffocating. He would know if it had happened before. He would know if it happened again.

“Just because they can use magic doesn’t mean they’re using it against us,” Karkat said, his voice steady.

“Are you sure of that?” Harley said. “How could you know?”

Here was the flaw of logic. Magic didn’t give a shit about logical thought processes, and how was he to know if there was mindfuckery afoot? The not-knowing was part of the very description. 

A part of Karkat understood completely. If Dave and his family were insidious villains, this was exactly how he knew they’d lure them in. Slowly, gain a little trust first, then tighten the net until it was too late. Too late to do anything but breathe the water in with a smile. To throw himself overboard. 

“I love my grandchildren,” Mr. Harley said, “I love them more than the world I gave up to raise them. I will not stand by and watch as the sea tries to take them from me.”

Karkat blinked, silenced. “You are a good parent,” he said, “And I understand that. But what if you’re wrong? What if all you protect them from is a fantasy and all you succeed in doing is pushing them away from you?”

“Then, Mr. Vantas,” Mr. Harley said coldly, surrounded by the effects of a long and worldly life that the teen could scarcely imagine. “Then that is a risk I will take.”

…

Dave had owned very few physical things in his life. Most of these were weapons in varying degrees of actual shit. But this one thing he was determined to not make into yet another shitty blade. 

The green sea glass in his hand the siren was trying to chip away into blade shape and sharpness was not cooperating with his wishes. 

“Dammit,” Dave sighed as a glass flake chipped off at the wrong angle and ruined the edge for about the tenth time. How the fuck did Dirk make this look so easy?

“Having difficulties there, Dave?” Roxy was lounged nearby and picked at underside of her nails with a thin shell.

“What, no,” Dave answered as he concentrated on the length of glass and tapped the smooth rock against it. “I am totally making this new knife the mortal equivalent of my awesome personality in epic blade form,” he said. “This will be a masterpiece, the epitome of non-shitty blades. Bitches everywhere will hunger after my craftsmanship and weep tears of jealousy after I finish this-” the blade cracked down the middle with a crackle. “Utter piece of fucking shit.” Dave finished lamely as he scowled at it.

Roxy giggled. “Here,” she said, “Let me see that.” She squirmed closer and stirred up the sandy floor with her tail. Dave handed her the cracked blade without further comment. She turned the green glass over and held it up to her eye to closely observe the crack. “Yeah, you fucked this up,” she said. “There’s no fixing it with that crack.”

“No shit,” Dave said. 

“It’s a shame,” she signed, admiring the glass in her hand, “It was a nice color too. Reminded me of that one girl we knew.” Roxy gazed into the middle distance of the sea around then, her eyes focused on nothing. “I wonder what happened to her?”

“Nepeta?” Dave asked, just to make sure. There were few enough sirens with scales this color green, olive as seafoam on algae-covered rocks. 

“Yeah, her,” Roxy said enthusiastically, “She swam with the Leijon pack. We haven’t heard from them in years.”

Dave shrugged and Roxy stuck her tongue out at him.

“That girl was badass,” Roxy said slowly, remembering the friend she hadn’t seen in years. “Ya know, I get that we’re all scattered now but… don’t you think it’s been long enough? Dave, it was six years ago.” She hugged her arms across her chest and the movement made her shoulders hunch up as she shrank in on herself. “Don’t you think it’s time for everyone to move on?”

Dave blinked. “What do you mean?”

Roxy swallowed hard and a small bubble floated upwards. Her short hair was curling at the edges the way it did when she tried to grow it out. “Even Dirk is acting friendly to the humans now,” she said. “If that can happen, anything can. I get that Peixes outlawed human contact but we all know that was always a shit decision made out of desperation. It was never supposed to last.”

“What are you getting at, Roxy?” Dave asked carefully.

“I’m just tired of being afraid,” she said. “Afraid of the humans, afraid of the hunters, afraid of wondering when it’s going to happen again.” She looked at him, her eyes wide. “Do you think it will ever go away?” Roxy asked. She pulled back, blinking against tears that didn’t show underwater.

“No, I don’t,” Dave said honestly. “But I do believe the fear gets better. I believe that we make it better.”

“You’re not even that bothered by the fact that you were nearly killed,” Roxy said, complaining light-heartedly. “It’s unfair.”

Now Dave smiled. “I can’t get torn up every time someone wants a piece of my ass. I am a hot commodity I’ll have you know.”

That earned a small grin from her. “That’s totes okay Davey,” she said, “You just keep telling yourself that.”

…

Rose was singing.

It was a quiet song, soothing, with no intent behind it. No spell to be woven. She sang like she was tasting how the magic felt on the way out. Dave listened closely, trying to pick apart all the different sounds within the burst of music. 

Rose slowed the song to its natural end with a slight pause before she let it slip away.

“Better,” Dave said approvingly. “Much better.” He didn’t like feeling like he was the teacher here, but hearing the improvement in Rose’s voice made the struggle worth it. Normally Dave didn’t attend Rose and Roxy’s singing lessons, but this time they were all together so that the girls could show off their improving skills. 

His twin smiled at him, “I can feel the difference,” Rose said, her voice buzzing from the singing lessons. “It’s fuller.”

“Deeper,” Dave added. “I think you’re getting the hang of this.”

Rose flicked her tail at him. “I still do not understand how you’re so good at this,” she said. “It’s a struggle to do anything through song.”

Dave just shrugged, uncomfortable with the questioning. They were at the surface, and Dirk lounged nearby, attempting to bait a seabird closer with a small fish for the hell of it. Dirk always had a problem with the gulls. They all adored him. He could barely show his face above the surface before the feathered rats began to mob him and sit in his hair.

“Try charming that seagull towards you,” Dave prompted. Dirk snorted and snapped his fingers and the gull launched itself at him, crackling and snapping for the fish with a narrow beak.

“Not you, moron,” Dave said as the bird pecked at his brother for the fish. “Rose.”

Dirk grinned and set the bird on his shoulder. It tried to preen his damp hair. “If you manage to steal it away from me it’ll be a fucking miracle,” Dirk said. “I can never get these fuckers to leave me alone.”

“Calling over an animal is a lot harder than just enticing a human,” Dave warned his twin, ignoring Dirk. “With them you can’t lie.”

Rose narrowed her eyes with concentration at the gray and white bird.

“Know what you’re going to use before you do it,” Dave said, his voice lowered to a whisper. “Get its attention first, then call it over.”

Rose sang again and this time she poured her will into the song. It still sounded like a song though, not quite like the sea. It wavered and dipped, and the gull took off and circled high above them. Its rancorous laughter rained down and Rose splashed at him. “What did I do wrong?”

“Not sure,” Dave said, tilting his head back to stare at the circling gull. “I think you were just trying too hard.”

Rose’s face creased into a frown. “Isn’t that the point?” Rose pushed. “Try to succeed?”

“To a degree,” Dave answered. “Magic isn’t something that you can force. You can’t beat it into doing what you want.” Magic was like with Karkat and swimming. “You have to let it carry you.”

He felt the disturbance against his scales a few seconds before Roxy popped up beside them and slung the water from her hair. “How’s it going?” she asked.

Rose groaned in frustration. “Seeing is so much easier than this,” Rose complained. “I don’t understand.”

Roxy cocked an eyebrow at her. “Rose, you are a Seer. You See. It’s a thing that happens on its own. Normal magic isn’t.”

“Could you do it?” Rose asked, and Roxy gave her a shark-like grin and opened her mouth. The sound of the sea poured out and the gull winged down and lit on the top of her head instantly, its eyes blank with the song. 

“I’ve been practicing too,” Roxy batted her fuchsia eyes at them innocently. Dave bit back a laugh from the look of Rose’s face.

“Alright,” Rose sighed, resigned. “I accept that I’m not the best at this.”

“You’re better than me,” Dirk said, rolling onto his back in the light surf. “Though I admit that’s not hard.”

“You could join us, you know,” Dave offered and turned to him. “Some practice won’t hurt.”

Dirk said nothing. Dave hadn’t expected him to. His older brother’s orange eyes were hooded and shadowed.

“You know I can’t,” Dirk said simply. There was no emotion in his answer. It was just a clean fact.

Privately Dave thought he knew what the problem with Dirk and magic was. Dirk probably did as well. Rose definitely knew. But knowing didn’t mean anyone could fix it. This gap between Dirk and singing had been there for years and it only kept growing wider. 

Dirk kept himself coiled up so tight and he let nothing out. Dave thought it was more likely for his brother to spit up a pearl rather than sing. The orange siren was a rock in a reef, solid and sturdy, but worn down by the constant pounding of the waves in some hidden place in his heart until there was nothing left.

Every siren could manage the basic stuff, like singing a human out to sea. Simple things. Dirk couldn’t even manage that. He’d never once used magic. It just wasn’t there for him. Dave’s brother was probably the only siren in all the seas who couldn’t sing. Most days it didn’t bother him. Some days it itched like sand under his scales. 

Dave still didn’t know how Dirk felt about his disability. His brother was a very private person even to his family, but he could fight better than all of them. He could swim so fast he blurred and the after image of orange scales was all that was left behind as a warning before the hit struck. 

Dave didn’t push the issue and Roxy kept up her song, but she changed it so that the intent was lost. The gull flew free and Roxy’s eyebrows contracted as she focused on the flow of the notes. Rose joined her, and their voices fell into a harmony, something sweeping and innocent.

Dirk nodded in appreciation. “I can hear the difference,” he said. “You both sound good.”

“Thanks,” Rose answered, clearing her throat. “I’m still not comfortable enough with it yet.”

“You’ll keep improving,” Roxy promised. “Here, I’ll keep practicing with you.” She nudged Rose with her shoulder and waggled her eyebrows.

“I’m still curious about how you managed to stop all of the humans on the beach when you were shot,” Rose said, quickly bringing the subject back around to him before Roxy could suggest something akin to moonlit choir practice. “You didn’t use any song at all, just a single word.”

Dave shrugged. His skin felt hot. “I’m not sure how,” he said. “I panicked and just… reacted.” He couldn’t explain it. He’d just reached out and the magic was there, saturated into his skin like the blood in the water. Electric with fear and pain, like he’d grabbed an eel and had it zap him to the core. 

“I felt the strength behind it,” Dirk said. “It even stopped me for a second.”

“I’m pretty sure it was a one time thing,” Dave said. “Drop it.” He wasn’t sure why he felt so irritated, but his throat was suddenly dry. He dipped lower and swallowed a lungful of brine to soothe the burn and tasted a spark on magic on his tongue.

Rose eyed him oddly from the side. “You okay?”

He was, but there was something other than salt in his mouth. He wanted to sing, he really did, but he still wanted to keep his singing hidden. He didn’t want to know the scope of his abilities. He didn’t want to be the singer of the family and fall under his father’s shadow. He just wanted to stay plain Dave and let Rose get all the magic like she was supposed to. He wanted to ignore the rising tide of magic that was swirling inside of him that he didn’t know what to do with. He didn’t want to see that flash of probing purple in his sister’s violet eyes and know that she knew exactly what he was thinking with her Seer’s magic. 

“Dave,” Rose cautioned. “Are you okay?” She slowly asked again. 

His tail twitched, fins skewed, and he turned his crimson eyes on her. “I think so,” Dave answered honestly. “I just… I want to try something.” His tone shifted as he straightened up, his tail flicking gently as he reared back upright and squared his thin shoulders.

There was nothing to do but accept it. Fighting Skaia on this would be like trying to avoid Karkat- useless and arrogant. If he could sing, truly sing, sing beyond a normal siren; if he had the old magic buried in his blood just like their father then it wasn’t something to hide. 

He let his inner conflict fall away and focused on the flow, the invisible beat of the sea around him that was always present to him. The tides were in his heart, the currents his blood. Ever shifting and changing but always in rhythm to the pulse and flow of the ocean. 

He clicked his tongue sharply, once, just loud and percussive enough to send a small shockwave of magic through the water around them. Magic sparked and popped with its invisible energy as it left his mouth. He began to sing. The red siren narrowed his focus down to his hands and let the music pour over them.

Roxy gasped in mingled shock and delight. Dirk’s face was as cool and steady as it always was, unreadable even now. Rose’s eyes were glowing faintly as the Seer in her reacted to the sudden strong pulse of magic.

Invigorated, Dave let the minor success spur him on. Shoving that degree of magic into a single tongue click felt like just scratching the surface. Magic was a deep sea and he was splashing in the shallows. He dug deeper, calling it up from a place in his core that burned hotter than the rest. He sang out his intent, bending the song and the music to his idea as he sang the water around them into a new shape.

The sea rippled, eddying around the four of them like a fallen stone had crashed through the surface. Dave was its epicenter, and the ripples grew stronger as the volume grew. He played with the magic, singing the water into a small tide all his own that shifted and swayed with the beat.

This was great. His smile was wide and blinding and a bubble of laughter wove its way into the song without a pause. He pushed harder, but the song still rolled off his tongue with ease.

Dave let the magic recede like the tide pulling away from the sand. Dave could feel the sun warm on the skin of his shoulders. He hadn’t felt this good since he’d sung that tiger shark up to meet Karkat. Warm and safe and peaceful, like the sea was watching over him. It almost made the astonished eyes of his siblings not hurt so much or cut so deeply.

“Holy hell,” Roxy all but screeched as he finished his short song. “Dave, that was fucking amazing!”

Dave swallowed and felt the soundless weight of eyes on him. Rose was considering him with eyes that were glowing faintly with a deep purple. “Well,” she said simply. “I’m impressed.”

Dirk just grunted. “Dad could sing away rough currents,” he said. “I can remember him doing it when we were young.”

“To sing the sea to sleep!” Roxy finished the quote with glee, “Just like him.”

“But I couldn’t do that if I wanted to,” Dave tried to explain. “Singing whole currents is different.”

“But the ability is there,” Rose said smugly. “Dave, you are a singer weighted heavy with the old magic.” Her tone booked no argument but a part of Dave still wanted to hide.

“I never asked to be,” he said out loud. 

Rose’s eyes glinted. “And I never asked to be a Seer,” she said. “Skaia gave us these gifts, and I believe it was for a reason.”

“When you figure out why, because I know you will,” Dave said. “Can you tell me?”

His siblings crowded in close as Rose sealed the deal between them with a final promise. “I will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, ok, I know its a bit of a slow start but it's still a chapter one after all. And there's a lot of good world building and conversations that take place in this chapter. I personally love grandpa Harley as a character and I hope you do as well, even with his recent sin. Does this make him a good guy? Hell no. But does it make him a sympathetic villain? Probably not lol.
> 
> And we get to see a bit from Roxy's perspective about the whole shooting affair and how Dave's family is reacting to that danger when coupled with the past trauma they've gone through. The chapter ends on a good note with Dave exploring a bit of his singing power through sibling bonding (which I'm always a fan of). So yes, a bit slow, but still important. This is it though-- the start of the great big buildup as the greater plot is revealed.


	13. chapter two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHO WANTS A 5K SECOND CHAPTER????????

carcinoGeneticist (CG) began Pestering twinArmageddons (TA) at 11:33am!

CG: SO ITS ME AGAIN, BITCH.  
CG: WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU UP TO THIS TIME, YOU KNOW, OTHER THAN NOT TEXTING ME BACK LIKE THE VICIOUS TWO-FACED CRETIN YOU ARE.  
TA: 2o we’re back two iin2ults then.  
TA: ii’ll have you know that ii’ve been working on that project you sent me becau2e ii’m a diiliigent and hard-fuckiing-workiing friiend.  
CG: THAT’S WHY I’M MESSAGING YOU, FUCKER. WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND SO FAR?  
TA: 2o far?  
TA: jack 2hiit  
TA: whiich, and don’t go fuckiing quotiing me on thii2, mean2 that you’re actually ontwo 2omethiing.  
CG: HOW SO?  
TA: normally when there’2 nothiing there two fiind iit2 just meaningle22 bull2hiit all across the web, but thi2 ii2 different. 2omeone 2crubbed the fuckiin 2erver2  
CG: ENLIGHTEN ME ON WHAT THAT FUCKING MEANS, OH GREAT COMPUTER LORD SHITFACE THAT YOU ARE.  
TA: faiir enough. iit mean2 that 2omeone 2crubbed the codeword2 from the iinternet to cut back on the chatter. that way when a new iin2tance of a flagged word pops up iit 2how2 up right away two whoever2 lookiing  
CG: SO THAT MEANS I WAS RIGHT? THOSE WORDS WERE FUCKING FLAGGED I KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW IT!  
CG: THANK YOU SOLLUX. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT GOOD YOU JUST MIGHT HAVE DONE.  
TA: exactly  
TA: ii don’t fuckiing know what 2hiit you’ve managed two fiind out there iin the ocean kk, but please, whatever iit ii2—2tay out of iit.  
TA: iif they had the manpower to 2crub the 2erver2 that means they’re fuckiing 2eriiou2.  
TA: kk, hackers like thii2 don’t fuck around and code all thii2 2hiit on a whiim. they’re lookiing for 2omethiing  
TA: don’t make your2elf that 2omethiing, do you hear me?  
CG: SOLLUX, I’M FINE, OKAY?  
CG: I’M FINE, JADE’S FINE, KAKAYA’S FINE. EVERYONE IS FINE. I’M PROBABLY SAFER OUT HERE ON HELLMURDER THAN I WOULD BE BACK HOME ANYWAY. SHIT, EVEN DAVE’S FINE AND HE  
CG: OH SHIT OH FUCK  
TA: who’2 dave?  
CG: HE’S NO ONE.  
TA: kk.  
CG: I PROMISE I CAN’T TELL YOU, OKAY? JUST, TRUST ME ALRIGHT? I’M TRYING MY BEST TO DO THE RIGHT THING.  
TA: karkat vanta2!  
TA: what the hell ii2 goiing on wiith you?  
CG: I WISH I FUCKING KNEW HOW TO ANSWER THAT.  
TA: why do ii have the feeliing that 2omeone got hurt? wa2 iit thii2 dave?  
TA: kk  
TA: ii de2erve at lea2t thii2 much  
CG: FINE. OKAY.  
CG: DAVE GOT HURT. I CAN’T TELL YOU WHO THAT IS OR WHAT HAPPENED, BUT YES HE GOT HURT. BADLY. BUT IT’S NOT CONNECTED TO THIS PROJECT I PROMISE AND HE’S FINE NOW.  
TA: he’2 ok?  
CG: HE MADE A FULL RECOVERY.  
TA: ii diidn’t think there wa2 anyone el2e who lived on that ii2land. ju2t jade, jake, and theiir granddad.  
CG: YOU’RE RIGHT. DAVE DOESN’T LIVE HERE BUT FORGET ABOUT IT, OKAY? FORGET I SAID ANYTHING.  
TA: 2o iit’2 for thii2 my2teriiou2 dave that you wanted me two look iinto flagged word2, ii2n’t iit?  
CG: I HATE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW.  
TA: ha! biingo  
CG: JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU FUCKING KNOW SO I CAN END THIS CONVERSATION BEFORE MY BRAIN LIQUEFIES FROM SHAME.  
TA: more liike before you let 2liip any other juiicy detaiil2, but go off ii gue22  
TA: okay, ii 2et up a 2imple 2y2tem that track2 the 2ame word2 you gave me. ii’ll get the 2ame hiit2 they do. iit’2 currently iin the miiliion2 of hiits though ii2 there any way ii can triim iit down?  
CG: TRY TO FOCUS ON THOSE HITS THAT TAKE PLACE ON THE COASTS OR IN THE OCEAN.  
TA: got iit. triimiing down to 2elect only coa2tal bull2hiit, re2ults are…  
TA: only 180,000 a day  
CG: SHIT, THAT MANY?  
TA: iit’2 a nearly iimpo22ible amount two 2ift through for only one per2on. ii’m gettiing hiits every tiime 2ome eiight year old po2t2 on facebook about how she want2 a *m*er*m*aiid doll for her biirthday.  
TA: and don’t you fuckiing DARE to use that m word wiithout quiirkiing iit up 2o that the algorithm can’t catch iit. see? ii even broke the fuckiing word up 2o that iit wouldn’t be caught  
CG: OKAY, I WONT! SHEESH, PARANOID MUCH?  
TA: ii don’t think you under2tand how 2eriiou2 ii’m being.  
CG: I DO. TRUST ME, I DO.  
CG: WHAT DO YOU NEED TO FURTHER SHORTEN DOWN THE SEARCH INTO SOMETHING MORE MANAGEABLE?  
TA: actually telliing me what ii’m looking for would be helpful. but 2omethiiing tell2 me you’re not goiing two do that.  
CG: NO, I CAN’T I’M SORRY.  
CG: TRY…  
CG: TRY FUCKING NARROWING IT DOWN TO SIGHTINGS INVOLVING THE WORDS.  
TA: 2ightiings  
CG: YEAH.  
TA: 2o let me get thii2 2traiight  
TA: you want me two look for 2ightiings of 2iren2 and m*ermaiid2 that take place on the coa2t or iin the ocean  
CG: SOLLUX, PLEASE. I KNOW HOW THIS SOUNDS.  
TA: you’ve got to be fuckiing kiidiing me  
TA: ii2 thii2 2ome kind of joke?  
CG: THIS IS ANYTHING BUT A JOKE! OKAY, SOMEONE ALREADY GOT HURT BECAUSE OF THIS. ALL I’M TRYING TO DO IS MAKE SURE IT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN.  
TA: ii thought you saiid dave gettiing hurt wasn’t part of thii2 project?  
CG: IT ISN’T! THIS HAPPENED BEFORE THAT, IN THE PAST.  
CG: I’M TRYING TO STOP HISTORY FROM REPEATING ITSELF.  
TA: that alway2 goe2 well, ii hear. trying two 2top fate. 2uch thiing2 crush you down over tiime untiil there2 nothiing left but apathy and biitterness  
CG: IS THAT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?  
TA: iit’2 hard when you’re not here, you know.  
TA: wiith you gone all the tiime iit’s ju2t me, dad, and miituna, he’2…  
TA: ...  
TA: talk two me more, ok? plea2e. ii’ve had enough of these bull2hiit once a month thiing2 ii feel liike ii’m goiing crazy.  
CG: THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SOMETHING SOONER? SOLLUX YOU KNOW I’M ALWAYS OPEN TO TALK. COMMUNICATION GOES BOTH WAYS, DUMBASS. YOU COULD HAVE PESTERED ME FIRST. I WOULD HAVE RESPONDED SOONER.  
TA: ii diidn’t want two 2poiil your vacation wiith my putriid 2elf-depreciiatiing hor2e2hiit  
TA: iif anyone de2erve2 a liittle tiime away from me, iit’s you.  
CG: DON’T TALK LIKE THAT. YOU KNOW I’M ALWAYS HERE FOR YOU.  
CG: ALWAYS.  
TA: even when you can’t tell me what the fuck’2 goiing on?  
CG: ESPECIALLY THEN.  
TA: ok. thank you  
TA: ii’ll let you 2ign out now.  
CG: I’LL TALK TO YOU LATER, OKAY?  
TA: ok.  
twinArmageddons (TA) has become an idle chum!

Karkat turned away from his computer and gnawed at his lip, staring at the yellow and gray words plastered over the screen. 

He’d been right. The hunters must have flagged certain words to help them track down sirens, but how could this help Dave and his family avoid them? Could he get Sollux to reverse-hack it so that he erased all of the sightings? Could he use this to track the hunters even? 

Karkat wasn’t sure, but it felt like he was standing right on the edge of something, poised to lose his balance and fall God knows where the next time the wind of chance blew. 

He did know one thing.

He needed to talk to Dave. 

…

Talking to Dave was difficult because it meant getting out of the house, which was still under Porrim’s imposing lockdown. Getting outside and making his way down to the beach was going to be a struggle. 

Karkat crept out of the room he shared with John. The coast looked clear, nothing but dust particles dancing in the sunlight shed from the high windows. Karkat snuck down the hall as quietly as he could manage when the wooden floor beneath him seemed content to creak with every step. He scowled, his nerves on edge.

All of his stealth was wasted when he entered the kitchen. Porrim was seated at the kitchen table, knitting what looked like a bag out of jade green yarn. Her eyes glimmered in the sunlight.

“Karkat,” she said, one eyebrow meticulously raised. “Headed somewhere?”

The innocent question was anything but innocent. “Yeah,” Karkat answered. “I was thinking about going out for a while.”

“Oh,” Porrim nodded silently. Her face was unreadable. “To see Dave?”

“Maybe,” Karkat answered evasively. 

Porrim put her knitting down. “Karkat—”

“Wait,” Karkat interrupted. “I know what you’re going to say and it won’t work on me.”

Porrim studied him closely. Karkat bore the piercing gaze with his shoulders back and his chin raised. 

“I think you’re right,” Porrim said after a brief pause. “My normal spiel won’t work on you. But I still believe we need to talk.”

Karkat knew he wasn’t going to escape this conversation. It would happen now or later, and the sooner it was over with the better.

“Okay,” Karkat relented and slid into the empty seat across from her. Porrim tapped her knitting needles against the tabletop, clinking the metal wands together. 

“Sirens,” Porrim said, her voice anything but dreamy. “And you knew about them for weeks without telling me.”

The hurt in her voice cut him to the core. “I’m sorry,” Karkat answered, his eyes downcast. “I really am, and not just for the secrecy. I should have trusted you from the start.” Porrim had been too good to him to deserve his secrets. Karkat owed her too much for that and the guilt ate at him. 

“You should have,” Porrim agreed. “That I’m glad we can both agree on.”

Karkat bore the light accusion in her tone with weary grace. “Thank you for agreeing to help Dave even with how crazy that entire situation was. You might have saved his life.”

“I doubt that he would have died,” Porrim mused, her lips pursed. “He seems to heal fast enough that he should have been alright long-term even with a rifle slug bouncing around inside him.”

Karkat nearly winced at the thought. He didn’t like the reminder of Dave’s injury, or the graphic imagery it provoked. He’d been dreaming of blood in the water for days now. “To be honest,” Karkat said carefully, gauging Porrim’s reaction. “If I had told you sooner, would you have believed me?”

Porrim gazed at him, her face set with certainty. “Karkat,” she told him. “I will always believe what you have to say.” 

Karkat’s throat felt tight. 

Porrim continued. “I remember when we first met. That seems so long ago now! You were much smaller and a lot more hateful at the world back then. With time you’ve learned forgiveness and compassion for others. I see those two feelings glowing in you right now, just waiting for you to let them out.” She leaned back in her chair and shook out her long dark hair. She looked at him and sighed. “I just look at you and I see how far you’ve come over the years. You have a good heart, Karkat. I know that you thought you were doing the right thing, but just remember for future reference that I will always be on your side.”

Karkat swallowed hard past the lump in his throat, speechless. His eyes felt wet but he was too emotionally exhausted to cry. “I will,” he promised, his voice shaking. “I won’t forget it.”

Porrim waved behind herself towards the back door. “Go,” she said. “And tell Dave that I’m here for him as well.”

“Thank you,” Karkat said, standing back up. What twist of fate had seen fit to grant him a person in his fucked-up life as great of an ally as Porrim? What had he ever done to deserve such unquestionable support?  
He didn’t know, but he knew better than to waste it. 

Karkat all but ran down the jungle path to the bay. His mind was racing from the events of the day and it was still early. He broke free of the tress and stepped into the sunlight-saturated sand. He kicked off his shoes and the fine sand was warm against the soles of his feet until he’d walked down close enough to the water to cool them. 

The wind was sprightly today and seafoam was caught against the dry sand in dying puffs, eroded away every second only to be replaced by another tuff of the white foam an instant later. Karkat squinted against the breeze.

The stone monoliths sat like the towers of a long-crumbled civilization. Seagulls wove between the stone walls, cawing loudly. 

“Dave!” Karkat called out, splashing into the cool surf. He could taste salt in his mouth as he fumbled forward into the water, the clean sand gently sloping until he was chest-deep. “Dave!”

He caught the underwater flash of sunlight against siren scales, but the color was wrong. A second later the only siren Karkat didn’t know cautiously surfaced about ten yards from him, shaking saltwater from his drenched hair.

“Dirk,” Karkat said, surprised to see Dave’s elusive older brother. “What are you doing here?”

“I live here,” Dirk said, shrugging as he crept slowly closer. He still kept his distance though, clearly unwilling to come closer. “I could ask you the same question.”

Karkat felt no fear, chest-deep in the ocean with the strange siren. “I meant as in, talking to me,” Karkat explained. “You’ve never willingly shown yourself to one of us before.”

“That was before I saw you step in front of a loaded gun to protect my brother.” Dirk said it like it was simple, like Karkat’s thoughtless, instinctive reaction had been something more than a brainless half-second of furious movement. Dirk considered him, sunk low enough in the sea that only his face was visible. “Dave’s not here today.”

“He’s not?” Karkat asked, crestfallen. 

“He and the others are out past the reef, practicing their singing,” Dirk told him with a wry grin. “Somewhere far enough away that you can’t hear them.”

“Oh,” Karkat said. That sounded neat. Magic practice. Okay. He could handle that. “Thanks for letting me know.”

Dirk said nothing. He just stared at Karkat with eyes the exact color of the sun setting over the water. 

“How’s he doing?” Karkat asked to fill the uncomfortable silence. “Is his wound bothering him?”

Dirk blinked slowly and there was nothing human about the motion. “You care about him,” Dirk stated, his eyes gleaming. “You care about Dave.”

“Yes,” Karkat said, because really by this point that should have been obvious. “I care about him very much.”

“And you’re human,” Dirk said pointing out something else that should have been obvious. 

“I am,” Karkat confirmed, taking a deep breath to steady himself. What was Dirk trying to say?

The orange siren shifted in the water, bobbing closer. His uncanny citrine eyes bored holes into Karkat’s core. It was like Dirk was trying to find the answer to some great question that was written on Karkat’s forehead. It was unnerving. 

“What are you trying to say?” Karkat asked. 

Dirk continued to study him wordlessly. He didn’t seem like he was ever going to answer, which made his next words a surprise. “I don’t understand you two,” Dirk said softly, his voice almost lost over the hiss of the nearby waves breaking against the reef. “I don’t get it.”

“You probably know more than I do about that,” Karkat offered, paddling in place as he waded into deeper water. He rolled over onto his back to float effortlessly, just like how Dave had taught him. “Dave acts like there’s something he knows that I don’t.”

“And yet you trust him anyway?” Dirk asked, confirming Karkat’s suspicion. Dave knew something. 

“With my life,” Karkat answered honestly. He saw no point in lying, not when secrets had caused him so much trouble. From now on, he was being honest with everyone—including himself. 

Dirk stared at him. He said nothing else. 

“You’ll tell him I was here?” Karkat asked, concerned.

Dirk’s chin dipped into a short, fast nod. 

That was clearly all Karkat was getting out of the orange siren. Dirk was wrapped in his net of aloofness and nothing Karkat did was going to unwind that particular monstrosity. 

He swam back to the shore and climbed up out of the sea, feeling Dirk’s orange eyes bore holes in his back the entire time. 

He didn’t once look back. 

…

Dave lurked around the ruins, wasting time with the changing of the tides as he wove in-between sprouts of green seaweed that brushed gentle fingers against his scales. He flicked his tail and twisted around elegantly, enjoying the sunlight that fractured through the water around him as he flared his fins, soaking up the warmth from where he lounged in the shallows. 

He twisted around and was pleased to feel that his wound didn’t twinge with hurt at the movement. He’d survived. He’d healed. Dave supposed not many sirens out there could brag about getting shot, but that thought just made him depressed so he shook his head with a flick and banished the thought. Today was too beautiful to feel sad. 

His family was with him, spread out across the bottom of the sandy bay as Dave explored the crumbling stone towers that perpetually drew his interest. He drifted over to the base of the central tower and ran his fingers across the slick stone. The rock here was covered in barnacles, clams, and slime, but Dave could make out the dark remnants of a once colorful mosaic beneath the sea mire. 

Someone had loved these towers. Someone had once cared for them, and now these ruins were all that were left of that love. 

The mystery of them itched at Dave’s scales. He wanted to know more.

The dark open moth of the broken doorway yawned at him, the squat building’s insides hidden in shadow. Dave crept closer, interested. 

He paused at the overhanging door, its mortar riddled through with holes. It was too dangerous for any sane person to venture inside, but… Dave shot his eyes to his closest sibling. Dirk was a few hundred yards away. There was no way he would know what Dave was up to as long as he kept quiet. 

Dave let his eyes adjust to the low light as he peered inside. The room wasn’t that large, a simple square with something huge and dark raised in the middle, the odd outcrop devoured by clinging sea life that even here away from the sunlight thrived in forgotten crannies. 

Dave crept inside the building, pulling his tail up behind him until he was engulfed in shadow. His eyes could pick out the details of his grayscale surroundings. The walls were now a uniform gray, but beneath the sludge were relics of past times.

Flowers, floaters, frogs, two crescent moons facing away from each other—Dave saw it all. What in Skaia’s name was this place?

“You know,” Rose’s voice spoke from only feet away, a hiss in the silence. “As your twin and a Seer, whenever you’re doing something incredibly stupid it makes my brain feel fuzzy.”

“Rose,” Dave gasped out, his heart pounding inside of him from the shock. “What are you doing here?”

“Following you, of course,” She answered, her eyes flicking over the algae covered walls. “And sating my own curiosity, alas.”

“Oh,” Dave said, calming down quickly. “Look around you,” he said. “What do you think happened here?”

Rose’s eyes glowed violet, shining in the dark. “This was once a sacred place,” she said, full of knowledge that she shouldn’t have possessed. She set her slim hand against the inner wall of the decrepit monument. “Skaia once moved in here, centuries ago.” Her brow furrowed with concentration as her eyes flared again, winning knowledge from Skaia. “This was a singing tower,” Rose answered her own question before she could ask it. 

“What’s that?” Dave asked. 

“I’m not sure,” Rose bit her lip. “But there is strong magic here.”

Dave couldn’t sense anything except for a cold current against his tail. “Singing tower,” he said. “Sounds fake.”

“Shut it,” Rose said, concentrating. “There’s a history here, something I’m trying to See.”

“Try harder,” Dave answered cheekily, and Rose swatted at him with her tail, the barbs thankfully down. 

“Hold on,” She said, not paying him any mind. “I think it’s coming to me.”

Dave waited in silence as his sister summoned old knowledge directly from Skaia, but the sea was a fickle thing and Rose at last let out a sigh.

“That’s all I can get,” she answered sadly. “It’s too old here for anything new to remain.”

“Is it easier to pick up on newer things?” Dave asked curiously. 

“Not really,” Rose answered, flicking her tail. “Skaia just isn’t as protective of things that aren’t old secrets.”

The tower groaned overhead, the tall hollow point letting in a dash of sunlight from high up drift downwards.

“Let’s get out of here,” Rose said. “This place isn’t for us anymore.”

The odd statement sat wrongly with Dave. “So it was meant for us at one time?” He asked. 

“I’m not sure,” Rose answered. “But I can say for certain we are not the first sirens to stumble inside the sanctuary, asking questions that went unanswered.”

“I’m glad I’m not a Seer,” Dave said. “It seems frustrating to want to know more only to be held back by the same thing that granted you the gift.”

Rose agreed. “It is frustrating sometimes, but I bear it.” 

They left the center tower together, swimming back into the sunlight and leaving behind a room full of frogs and mystery behind them. 

…

Karkat met Dave a little beyond the shoreline. He was on the main beach by the pier when he finally spotted Dave’s head bobbing in the surf and splashed out to meet him, overjoyed to see the red siren again.  
“Dave!” He called out as the siren shot over to him.

Dave was smiling. “Hey, Karkat.”

Karkat quickly scanned him, looking for any hint of the injury Dave had taken less than a week ago. The siren’s red length was glittering and unaltered, his vibrant colors bright and warm. There was no hint of the pale stress Dave had worn after he’d been shot. His chest was almost unmarked, nothing left but a faded scar that graced the hollow below his collarbone. 

This was all taken in a short glance before Karkat crashed into the siren, grabbing for Dave’s shoulders to steady himself in the bouncing surf. 

“Hey,” Dave smiled again and his skin was warm beneath Karkat’s hands. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Karkat replied, just loving being close to Dave again. These last few days had been stressful and now that stress was melting off of him in waves. “I’m sorry that I was gone for a few days. Porrim wouldn’t let us leave until after she’d made sure that old Harley wouldn’t be a danger anymore.”

“Its fine,” Dave said, brushing way Karkat’s worry. “I didn’t want you to see me until I was all healed up.”

“You didn’t?” Karkat asked curiously, slightly hurt. 

“I didn’t want you to worry about me,” Dave clarified, grinning. “I’m fine now. See?” Dave ducked back underwater and swam a tight circle around him, showing off his flexibility. His scales flashed in the sunlight. 

Karkat felt the water ripple around him from the siren’s movements. The circle grew smaller until Dave brushed up against his legs, then popped back up to the surface. Karkat sensed the slick edges of fins ghost against him underwater. 

“I tried to find you yesterday,” Karkat mentioned, paddling deeper into the sea. “Dirk said you were practicing singing?” He didn’t mean to make the statement into a question but that’s how it came out. 

Dave blinked at him. “You talked to Dirk?” he said, surprised. “What’d he say?”

“He wasn’t that talkative,” Karkat admitted.

“I can imagine,” Dave said, leaning back in the water until he was floating. Karkat tried to keep his eyes off the flat lanes of Dave’s bare chest. “I wonder why he showed himself to you?” 

“I’m not sure,” Karkat said. “I asked about you and he answered, but that was it.”

“Huh,” Dave flipped over and rolled back upright again. “I’m sorry you missed me. I was out beyond the reef with my sisters.”

“Practicing singing? Karkat prodded lightly, probing along the reach of his curiosity. 

“My sisters have started to practice their singing a lot more frequently now,” Dave told him, edging closer once more to whisper as if it were a secret, like he feared the waves would overhear his words. “Between you and me, Rose isn’t very good at it.”

Karkat laughed and splashed at him. Dave shook the water from his hair with a knowing look. 

“She’s getting better,” Dave said, defending himself. “It just… takes practice. Lots and lots of practice, in her case.”

“Do you need practice?” Karkat teased, and abruptly the happy look fell off Dave’s face, replaced with something serious. 

It only lasted for a heartbeat, but that was long enough for Karkat to know he’d accidently hit a nerve.

“No,” Dave said slowly. “I don’t think that I do.”

Karkat for once in his life held his tongue. Learning Dave’s secrets weren’t worth that look on the siren’s face, something forlorn and lost. 

Dave continued anyway, the words spilling from him. “Why practice if not to get better? To get stronger? That’s what the girls think, at least.”

“And you?” Karkat asked, fearing he’d said the wrong thing.

“I don’t want either,” Dave confided in him thoughtfully. “I can’t talk to them about this because I don’t think they’d understand, but I’m okay with just being me. I don’t want singing to change that. "

Karkat didn’t understand. “How can singing change who you are?”

“It will change how they look at me, how they see me,” Dave said, staring at Karkat. “My dad, he was a singer strong with the old magics, a true son of Skaia. Everyone looked up to him for it. They treated him like a hero as they isolated him for it.” Dave’s voice grew darker. “I don’t want that. I don’t want that… responsibility, I guess. That loneliness.” Dave turned back to Karkat, his gaze searing. “Do you get me or am I being too vague and whaleshitty?”

“I get you,” Karkat said, staring back with his hair plastered down over his scalp. He kicked his legs to stay in place as the current tried to drift him to the right as he spoke from the heart. “I fear being lonely too.”

“You do? Dave asked, surprised. “But your family—”

“My family’s dead,” Karkat reminded him. “My legal guardian is a piece of shit. Porrim, Kanaya, John… they’re not my real family.” And they were under no obligation to keep devoting their time and effort to him. 

That was his fear, that one day Porrim would wake up and decide that he wasn’t worth the effort of loving anymore because he was an abrasive asshole, that Kanaya would come to her senses and realize that he was nothing more than a fraud, and that John would wake up and see that he could do so much better in life and that associating with Karkat would only drag him down. 

And that would leave Karkat all alone except for Sollux, a guy he’d never met before that he only screamed at and chronically insulted through a computer screen, and then Sollux would leave him too, because that’s what he did wasn’t it? He pushed people away. 

Dave just stared at him. “Did I ever tell you?” He asked, “That Roxy’s not my real sister?”

“What?” Karkat gasped, shocked. “But I thought…”

“Nope,” Dave replied, looking grim. “She’s my first cousin, technically. Her family was killed when she was a baby so my dad took her in. Oh, and Dirk’s only my half-brother. Rose is my only full sibling and all of our collective parents are dead.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Karkat asked, sensing an ulterior motive.

“To remind you how much of an idiot you’re being,” Dave sighed and ran his hand through his wet hair. “You thought that we were one big happy family, because that’s exactly what we fucking are. Blood bonds don’t decide family—you do.” Dave stared directly into Karkat’s eyes, his voice gentle. “And Porrim, Kanaya, and John belong to your family even if they aren’t blood.” He swam forward and lightly put his hands on Karkat shoulders. 

Karkat’s skin burned at the touch. 

“Porrim loves you,” Dave told him. “Kanaya loves you. John loves you. Fuck, even Jake and Jade love you. That’s what make them your family.”

Karkat grabbed at Dave and pulled him close. His lips hovered just above the siren’s. “When did you get so much smarter than me?” He asked in a whisper.

“I’ve always been exactly this intelligent,” Dave quirked back with a slow, wry grin. “The ocean teaches many things. Family’s what keep us together in rough tides, no matter what.”

Karkat licked his lips and watched as Dave’s eyes followed the movement with rabid attention. “Thank you for telling me that,” Karkat told him gratefully. “Sometimes I need a little common sense knocked into me.” His heart felt light and fluttery. It beat hard inside of his chest and he was hyper-aware of how close Dave was to him. His hands were warm on Karkat’s shoulders. 

He wanted to kiss Dave again, badly, to make sure that time before hadn’t been a fluke, to make sure that Dave still wanted him. To feel the siren’s lips against his skin.

Dave grinned again, something slow and full of himself as Karkat pulled him closer. Karkat couldn’t stop staring at his lips, but he burned with embarrassment so much that he couldn’t ask for what he wanted without turning red in the face. 

Dave was a lifesaver as he moved closer. “Can I kiss you?” He asked softly. 

Karkat managed to jerk his chin down in a nod before yanking the siren to him. Dave’s lips were just as warm and soft as Karkat remembered. There was a hint of salt that made the red siren taste like the ocean as Dave eagerly kissed him back in a kiss that went on and on. Like waves breaking on the sand, Karkat lost track of where one kiss ended and another began.

And he wouldn't have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of stuff happening now, lots of plot points coming together, loose ends to tie up revealing themselves, Sollux as my fav character again, my boy getting shit done, and most importantly-- singing tower bullshit! And more family bonding/character exploration. 
> 
> As far as my seething hatred of all chapter twos go, this one actually isn't that bad. Maybe I'm getting better at the dreaded second chapters. 
> 
> Thoughts?


	14. chapter three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter yeah!
> 
> I have written 15000 words in the past two days on this story. Not this chapter. Not even the chapters that come after it. I'm still writing this thing out of order but somehow it keeps working. I'm actually at the 125k mark and by my estimate we're still below halfway done. I'm only up to chapter five in Act One, Part two, but I have all of the intermissions and a great deal of Act Two, Part One done. Its so hard because I want to post everything but have to stay in order so the story makes sense. 
> 
> This is such an awesome story but I feel like we're still stuck in the fluffy beginning. It's just dragging on. Why am I like this? 
> 
> Don't worry. Soon.... plot will explode. (I feel like I've been saying that since like halfway through Part One oops D: )

Dave was meeting with Karkat daily now. Every day as the sun set bloody on the water to match his red scales, he’d swim to the far side of the island. Karkat would be waiting for him with his ass in the sand and his legs in the sea. 

Today Karkat wasn’t alone. Porrim was with him, wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a green ribbon through it. 

Dave slowed his eager swimming and took stock of the situation before showing himself. Karkat’s face didn’t look distressed. The human at his side didn’t look angry, just patient. 

Dave wondered what Porrim wanted from him. 

His head broke the surface behind a wave thirty yards away, right where the waves were beginning to crest and crash as they hit the shallower sandbar below them and the water was forced up. Karkat spotted him first, as always, and Dave’s heart jumped at the way his face lit up with joyous recognition. 

Karkat began to wade out to him, sticking next to the dock as Porrim began to follow him down its length, staying out of the water.

Dave watched them curiously. He hadn’t seen another human besides Karkat since he’d been injured, and the woman walking towards him was the reason why. 

Dave paddled quickly over to where Karkat clung to the dock. He wanted nothing more than to scoop Karkat into his arms, but under Porrim’s watchful eyes he held back.

Porrim watched him with an unreadable expression, her dark eyes carefully blank. “Dave,” she greeted when he came close enough to hear. “It’s good to see you well.”

The last and only time Porrim had seen him, he’d been bleeding to death. Dave shrugged, unsure of what to say. “Thank you,” he tried. “For helping with that whole, bullet-wound, thing.” He ended lamely, internally cringing and glad that Rose or Roxy weren’t there to overhear the embarrassing monstrosity that just left his lips. So uncool. 

“And you are fully healed?” Porrim asked curiously, kneeling down to sit on the edge of the pier. Her feet just barely brushed against the water’s surface. 

Dave reached up and touched the scar under his collarbone. The skin there was bumpy. “Yes mam,” he said respectfully. “All thanks to you.”

She nodded politely and Dave flicked his tail, coming closer until he floated right underneath her. The rapidly fading light couldn’t hide the fact that his tail was visible below the waterline, the v of his hips melting smoothly into scales when he rolled over in the water. 

“I hope I’m not interrupting something,” Porrim said, greeting him warmly. “I asked Karkat this afternoon if I may speak with you.”

“It’s not like I could say no,” Karkat snarked from below her, and was silenced by a good-natured scowl.

Porrim’s face was clear, her gaze strong. “May I have a word, Dave?”

“Sure,” Dave answered, flustered. “What do you want to know?”

“It’s more what I want to say,” Porrim admitted carefully. “I’ve been keeping everyone except for Karkat away from the sea this past week while I gave the matter of your existence much thought.” She gave him a piercing look, her eyes boring into him. “And I’ve come to the conclusion that you probably don’t intend to cause us any harm outright.”

Dave forced himself to stay silent, to let her continue.

“And I’ve personally seen the difference your friendship has caused in Karkat,” Porrim stated. “And for that, as well as everything else, I’d like to thank you.”

“Thank me?” Dave asked confused. “For what?” It’s not like he’d done anything remarkable or worthy of thanks from this strange human woman. 

“For turning out to be a friend,” Porrim told him. “There’s a different scenario where you and your family weren’t so benign. I’m glad this was the outcome and not that other version.”

“Oh,” Dave said feeling his ears burn red. “I wouldn’t hurt any of them, ever,” he swore. “You won’t have to worry about that. Not even Dirk would harm one of them now.”

“And why’s that?” Porrim asked him, her gaze sharp as broken coral. 

Dave shrugged. “Because I asked him not to.”

“And you think that will stop this brother of yours from harming any of my children?” She asked, and Dave knew she meant all of her children, Karkat and Jade and them included. 

“Yes,” Dave answered. “Dirk’s not violent or anything. He just worries about us, just like you do. He’s the oldest and out here, being alone, it put a weight on him.” Dave stared at the older woman, hoping she’d understand. “Dirk’s only ever done his best to protect us.”

Porrim’s steel gray eyes were calm as a storm at dusk. “I understand,” she fretted. “I don’t know the story, but I’m sure there’s a reason why Dirk thinks and acts the way he does.” She looked like she very well understood weights like the kind that Dirk carried with him. 

The scars down Dave’s arm gave a twinge under her piercing gaze. He didn’t answer. What was there to say? That the old man wasn’t the first human to take a shot at him?

Karkat sunk lower in the water, bending his knees. His expression was thoughtful. “I don’t think Dirk’s someone we have to worry about,” he said. 

“He’s not some tyrant,” Dave answered, shrugging. “He’s my brother and I love him.”

“Very well,” Porrim afforded him the benefit of the doubt. “I will choose to believe you.” She looked out over the water, calm. “I’ll let the others have access to the beaches again. I can’t exactly keep everyone cooped up in the house forever. We’ll all go mad from proximity.”

Dave grinned, overjoyed at the news. He could go back to seeing Karkat again! And John, and Kanaya and Jake and the rest of them. His friends. “Well,” he said, smiling. “We can’t have that, can we?”

Karkat looked more subdued at the news, hiding his expression. “Thank Jesus,” he said. “I was going to strangle John before long.”

Porrim dipped her head and gathered up her skirts in one fist. “I think I’ll leave you two now,” she said. “You’ve both proved that I can trust you. Dave?”

“Yes?” Dave answered.

“Please don’t hurt him,” Porrim asked, and then she left, marching back up the sands to the house on the hill. 

Karkat watched her go with a strange look on his face, clearly confused. “It should not have been that easy,” he said. 

“What?” Dave asked, still spooked by her last order. Why would he ever hurt Karkat?

“She let me go,” Karkat said, shaking his head. “I thought she’d fight harder to keep us apart, but something made her give in.”

“Give in to what?” Dave asked, clueless. 

“Me,” Karkat sighed. “Us.”

“Us?” Dave asked, keying into the word. “Are we an us, now?”

Predictably, Karkat blushed. The beautiful color filled his neck and face with red. Dave loved that shade against his dark skin. 

“Maybe?” Karkat squeaked out, cutting his eyes over at Dave. “Are we?”

“If you want to be,” Dave offered Karkat his hand. 

Karkat hesitated. “This isn’t some kind of cultural mix up is it?” He asked. “This is, in fact, us agreeing to be boyfriends?”

Dave couldn’t help but laugh as he grabbed at Karkat’s hand. “Yes,” he said, still laughing. “That’s what this is.”

Karkat laughed too, the sound ringing across the water. “Good,” he said smugly as he curled his fingers into Dave’s like he didn’t want to let go. “Boyfriends. That’s exactly what I want.”

“So,” Dave joked, because he couldn’t make this moment any better. “You, like, like me, right?”

Karkat just laughed louder, showing teeth, and Dave kissed him then with the taste of his mirth still heavy in his mouth. The kiss made Karkat’s laughter stop as he breathed deeply, latching onto Dave’s shoulders to hold himself close in the water. Karkat’s lips were warm against his own. 

“Oh no,” Karkat broke off and frantically looked around, paranoid. “What if Porrim’s watching from the trees?”

“So what?” Dave said, flicking his tail. “Let her see.”

Karkat relaxed again, drifting limp in the water, held up by Dave. “You’re right,” he said. “Let them all fucking see! I don’t give a fuck.”

Dave laughed and kissed him again. Karkat was just so easy to kiss. He could have done this for hours. 

Karkat broke off to breathe again, panting. “No fair,” he complained. “Some of us don’t have gills and need their lungs to do this thing called breathing, or, you know, they die.”

“You can take all the breathing breaks you need,” Dave told him. “I’m aware that you breathe air instead of extracting excess oxygen from the surrounding water like any sane species would do.”

“Are you calling my species insane?” Karkat said, his eyes intent as he watched Dave’s face. 

 

“Dude,” Dave said. “You’re the one dating a mythical creature. Would you call that sane?”

“Fuck you,” Karkat splashed at him playfully, laughing again. His teeth glinted in the sunlight and Dave hadn’t felt happier than this since he was a child just learning how to speed off after the brightly colored fish that would dare to swim by on the reef he’d grow up on. 

Karkat clung to him tightly, his fingers pressing into Dave’s shoulders. The human’s hands found their way to his neck where they latched on, finger’s laced together behind his neck. 

The total, complete display of trust astounded Dave as Karkat continued to kiss him, edging closer the entire time. Dave’s hands came up automatically behind Karkat’s bare back, feeling along the muscular planes there. Karkat wasn’t that muscular but he had a sturdy frame and broad shoulders that felt warm under Dave’s spread palms as he cradled Karkat to him, lips pressed against his jawline. All he could taste was salt on Karkat’s slick skin. The feeling was addictive. 

Karkat broke free to breathe again, his breath short as Dave continued to kiss along his skin with expert attention. Karkat laughed again, giddy, and the sound vibrated through Dave’s chest. The siren was blushing; he could feel the blood rushing to his face and gills as his fins flared out lazily.

They didn’t separate until the sun had finished setting cross the water and turned Karkat’s fingertips shriveled. 

Dave sped back around the island to the bay as fast as he could, smiling the entire time. 

…

Karkat sat at the dinner table with Porrim and the others. The only house member and island dweller missing was Grandpa Harley, who hadn’t been spotted outside of his tower since the incident. The Boo Radley routine was starting to really bother Karkat. Running from problems never fixed them and he’d rather keep the old man where he could see him. Or at least where Porrim could see him. Nothing escaped her sharp gaze. 

Jade and Jake were last to the table. Jade’s eyes were still resolutely hardened as she refused to look at her grandfather’s empty chair. Jake just sighed and sat down, his shoulders slumped. 

“Children,” Porrim began gently, tapping her fork against her plate to produce a soft clank. “I have some news.”

John looked up, his eyes hopeful. Kanaya looked resigned. Karkat squared his shoulders and tried not to look like he’d just spent the last hour making out with Dave. From the way John kept kicking him from under the table, Karkat had a feeling that he’d failed. It felt like his skin was burning deliciously everywhere Dave had placed his lips. 

Porrim set down the fork. “I spoke with Dave,” she said. “And based on our conversation… I’ve decided to lift the house ban. You are again free to do and go where you wish.”

Jake and John blinked at each other, a slow grin spreading across their faces.

“This means, Karkat,” Porrim said, determined to embarrass him, just a little. “That you don’t have to continue sneaking out in order to see Dave. You’re free to visit him as often as you like.”

Karkat’s ears burned red with pleased embarrassment as John kicked him under the table again. “Thank you, Porrim,” he said, raising his voice. 

Porrim nodded at him. Kanaya’s eyes gleamed with merriment as she stared at him. 

Karkat quickly ate his food and headed off to the central study of the house, where the only computer with internet access was. He had to duck beneath the arm of a huge black taxidermy bear to squeeze into the chair. The study was a cluttered mess of the elder Harley’s various exploits. Karkat could feel the glass eyes of the dead animals watching him as he dutifully pulled up Pesterchum.

He was in luck—Sollux was already online and his inbox was blinking with unopened messages. 

twinArmageddons (TA) began Pestering carcinoGeneticist (CG) at 9: 43pm!

TA: 2o ii’ve been lookiing iintwo the background behiind who miight be runniing thii2 liittle 2cheme you’ve had me track.  
TA: there’2 not much two 2ee. they’ve been very thorough wiith coveriing theiir track2, but not quiite good enough two e2cape my careful 2earchiing, godliike hacker that ii am.  
TA: tell me karkat.  
TA: have you ever heard of the name megiido?

Karkat sighed and pulled the keyboard closer to him to answer.

CG: WHAT THE /FUCK/ IS A MEGIDO?  
TA: ii take iit that’2 a no.  
TA: whatever they are, they’re the one2 who are controlliing the web 2crape. they’re the one2 trackiing tho2e word2 you gave me.  
CG: SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY? SOME KIND OF EXTREMIST GROUP OR SOMETHING EQUALLY TERRIBLE?  
TA: a quiick iinternet 2earch turns up that the megidos are a 2ri lankan bankiing cabal but ii don’t thiink it’s the 2ame megiidos unless they’re 2omehow makiing money off of 2crubbiing the web of tho2e flagged word2.  
TA: iit 2eem2 liike a lot of fuckiing ha22el for banker2 to go through.  
CG: IS THAT ALL YOU’VE FOUND? ARE YOU SURE THERE’S NOT ANYTHING ELSE YOU CAN TELL ME?  
TA: well 2hit kk what ii2 iit you’re fuckiing lookiing for? what do you want from me?  
CG: I’M JUST TRYING TO KEEP EVERYONE SAFE.  
TA: then tell me the truth 2o that ii can help  
CG: I CAN’T. I MADE A PROMISE TO SOMEONE THAT I’D KEEP THIS A SECRET.  
TA: a promii2e two who? thii2 elu2iive dave?  
CG: YES, OKAY? I MADE A PROMISE THAT I CAN’T BREAK.  
TA: all promii2e2 have loopholes  
CG: MAYBE THEY DO, BUT BREAKING THIS ONE COULD HAVE CONSEQUENCES SOLLUX. PEOPLE COULD GET HURT.  
TA: what the fuck have you gotten your2elf iintwo? Extremists? Cult-shit?  
TA: ii can fuckiing help you—ju2t let me help you goddammiit!  
TA: why do you alway2 have to be 2o goddamn 2tubborn?  
TA: plea2e  
TA: plea2e iit2 driiviing me mad, not knowiing how be2t to help you  
TA: look ii even 2aiid plea2e twiice what more do you fuckiing want from me?  
CG: I…  
CG: I NEED TO TALK TO DAVE FIRST ABOUT THIS. DON’T GET YOUR HOPES UP, BRING THOSE HOPES RIGHT THE FUCK BACK DOWN CAPTOR… BUT I’LL TALK TO HIM. MAYBE I CAN GET HIM TO CHANGE HIS MIND ABOUT KEEPING THIS FROM YOU.  
TA: oh so thii2 dave douchebag ii2 deliiberately keepiing me iin the dark?  
TA: ii fuckiing hate hiim  
CG: OH CALM DOWN YOU TWAT. HE DOESN’T KNOW YOU EXIST.  
TA: …  
TA: all thii2 work ii’ve done for you and you haven’t even told hiim about me?  
CG: OH SHIT, IT’S NOT LIKE THAT I SWEAR.  
CG: SOLLUX.  
TA: ii see how it fuckiing ii2 and ii know when ii’m not a-fuckiing-ppreciiated.  
TA: fuck you  
CG: FUCK YOU RIGHT THE FUCK BACK, YOU JEALOUS FUCKER.  
CG: LISTEN TO ME, YOU’RE STILL MY BEST FRIEND AND I NEED YOU NOW. MAYBE NOW MORE THAN EVER.  
CG: I’M JUST TRYING TO KEEP EVERYONE SAFE.  
CG: INCLUDING YOUR UNGRATEFUL SKINNY ASS.  
TA: ii’m fuckiing touched  
TA: or not  
TA: kk really? who ii2 thii2 dave? why ii2 iit 2o iimportant that I fiind out who2e behiind the2e flagged word2?  
CG: CANT’T YOU JUST TRUST ME FOR NOW? CAN’T THAT BE ENOUGH?  
TA: ii ju2t need more to go on  
TA: the more ii know the ea2iier my job ii2.  
CG: THAT’S ALL I CAN SAY WITHOUT BREAKING MY PROMISE. I’LL SEE ABOUT DAVE TO KNOW IF I CAN TELL YOU MORE, BUT THAT’S ALL FOR NOW.  
TA: thii2 ii2n’t ju2t some fun 2ummer project ii2 iit? thii2 ii2 real 2hiit  
CG: THIS IS REAL SHIT.  
TA: fuck  
TA: ok kk, you wiin thii2 round  
TA: ii’ll keep lookiing. ii have a few plan2 up my 2leeve2 about how two get two the bottom of thii2 and ii’ll let you know iif any of them work.  
CG: THANK YOU SOLLIX.  
CG: THAT’S ALL I CAN ASK FOR.  
TA: ii ju2t hope its fuckiing enough for whatever you’re doiing

twinArmageddons (TA) has become an idle chum!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is kind of a slow chapter but its sweet and nice as it has good things that happen during it. Plus all this character building is very important. It's nice to have such a story where I can just really dig down and explore the characters so in-depth.
> 
> Also I still love Sollux and feeling his rising frustration is great. He's a good friend.


	15. chapter four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter is up early! JUST FOR YOU, READERS! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dave scrubbed a handful of sand against his scales underwater, cleaning and polishing them up until the red shone and flashed in the sunlight that cut bars of light that glittered through the briny water. It was uncomfortable and he hated the itch of getting sand under his scales, but the maintenance was necessary. 

Dave wanted to look his best now that he and Karkat were officially together. Maybe it was a tad vain of him to want to look good for his boyfriend, but the sand scrub was easy to do and Dave couldn’t argue with the results. Dave clawed up another handful of the fine sand and started scrubbing around the base of his pelvic fins until the scales there caught and reflected the light. The fins themselves he left alone—sand wouldn’t do anything to them except rub micro-cuts into the membrane that would sting and itch. 

Dave slowly worked his way down his entire tail, missing no scale in his attempt to clean himself up. Every inch of his flexible spine bent and twisted to reach the furthest lengths of himself, combing down until he hit the base of his tailfin. He was careful to avoid the spines at the base, one on each side, because when he was younger he’d cut his fingers enough poking around those jagged barbs to have learned not to go prodding at them. Plus the one on the left felt loose and about to shed out, a new, stronger one growing in beneath it. 

When he reached his tailfin Dave paused, recalling Karkat’s words about its appearance. To the siren it was normal, just another part of himself, but when viewed through the lens of legs he guessed it did look different. The strong membrane was a translucent red, the spines supporting the fin nimble and made for speed. Color aside it was identical to his siblings and every other siren in existence.

Dave straightened back out from his twisted position and admired his handiwork. His scales gleamed bright scarlet and his fins flicked in vain happiness at the sight. 

Now came the most important part— showing off. 

Dave rocketed past his siblings as he headed back around the island, swimming for the pier and the white-strung hammock Karkat had erected for him. 

It was easier to stay in the bay, but there with his siblings around there was no privacy. A half hour swim was worth it for the chance of some secrecy away from prying eyes. 

It was later in the day, the sun just slunk low enough in the sky to kiss the top of the dormant cinder cone. 

Dave popped his head out of the water out past the breaking waves, scoping out the empty beach. Karkat was normally here at this time, but apparently now right now. 

Then Dave caught a flicker of movement from the end of the pier, by where the lone, forlorn boat was moored. Dave ducked back below water to eagerly zip over to his friend.

He made sure to check who it was before showing himself to the person who bustled at the end of the pier.

It wasn’t Karkat. Or Jake, or Jade or any of the others he knew well.

It was the grandfather, the man who had shot him. 

Dave quickly hid beneath the dock out of sight, his heart pounding as he listened to the man shuffling around above him, whistling to himself. A second later there was a splash from his right as Dave spotted the line and sinker of a fishing line drop rapidly past him. The hook glinted in the dying light before it sank out of sight. 

Fishing. The old man was fishing. Dave sunk deeper, all the way down to the seabed sixty feet below where the sounds of the man above him faded in the whitewash of waves as he deliberated what to do now. 

Dave should just leave, flicker out of sight and back around the turn of the coast, safe from the danger this man presented. The scar at his chest twanged with remembered pain that sent a jolt up his shoulder and down his arm. His skin was crawling with dislike as he watched the hook bob gently above the seabed, baited with something pale and meaty that smelled like shrimp. 

If Dave were both Dirk and petty he’d have stolen the bait out of spite, but he left it alone, thinking.

The truth was Dave had never thought he’d have to face this man again, and technically he didn’t have to. Harley had no idea Dave was there, all he had to do was swim away. 

But…

Dave bit at his lower lip, stressed. Here was a golden opportunity to talk to the man that had tried to kill him, and Dave didn’t really know why he even wanted to talk to the guy. But he could think of a few questions he’d like to ask.

And besides, if something happened he could always swim away. What was the guy going to do, throw the fishing rod at him? Dave was safe here. 

He cautiously crept back to the surface ad popped his head above the water’s surface, still below the dock and out of sight. 

The man was whistling cheerfully to himself as he waited for a bite. There was a clicking as he reeled in the line a few inches and then let it fall slack again. 

Dave’s head broke the surface by the back of the boat. The man sat in a folding chair at the end of the pier, the rod and reel held in skilled hands as he waited for the fish to come. He didn’t notice as Dave watched him, not at first. 

Dave waited patiently for the man to spot him. He didn’t want to startle the guy so he simply waited until the man looked up from his fishing and made eye contact with the siren.

The man froze, the sound of his whistling choked off. 

“Hey,” Dave said softly, blinking as the man scrambled backwards, almost falling out of his chair. “Easy, I’m not here to hurt you,” Dave said quickly, raising his empty hands. He wasn’t like Dirk, who always carried a knife. He was unarmed. 

The man gasped in a breath, his chest heaving. “What do you want?” He demanded, standing upright with the fishing pole help in his fist. 

“Do you recognize me?” Dave asked. 

The man squinted at him. “You’re the one I shot,” he said slowly, musing it over. “Though not the one I was aiming at. You threw yourself in the line of fire to save that other siren… I suppose you’re here to kill me?” The words came out incredibly calm, so calm that it took Dave a half-second to realize what was said. 

“What? No!” Dave said vehemently, shaking his head. “I just wanted to talk.”

“Hmmmm,” Harley said, full of suspicion. “Talk about what?”

“What happened,” Dave said, motionless. He didn’t come any closer.

The old man’s eyes kept flicking to the boat and back, and Dave was sure he’d stashed a weapon out of reach in the boat.

“Why’d you try to shoot my sister?” Dave asked curiously. That was part of what bothered him. Out of the three visible sirens, why’d this old man chosen Rose?

“I thought she was the one causing all of the problems,” Harley said, expressionless. “But that’s you, isn’t it? You with your devil’s eyes.” Harley scoffed, disgusted. “You’ve gotten your hooks deep inside of that Vantas boy, haven’t you? What do you want with him?”

“Nothing,” Dave said simply. He keenly felt the phrase devil’s eyes and blinked, his red gaze hardening. 

The old man clearly didn’t believe him. “Karkat’s a good kid with a good heart,” Harley said slowly. “Let him go, now. Release him.”

The accusion in the words cut Dave to the core. He flicked his tail in irritation. “Karkat’s not under any spell,” Dave explained. “None of them are. There’s no magic here.”

“Lies,” Harley waved the words away. “I’ve felt you use magic against humans before. If you’ll do it once you’ll do it again.”

“I sang that spell to save your life,” Dave defended himself. “And it worked, didn’t it? Or would you have rather me let Dirk kill you?”

Harley grunted, still holding the fishing pole. 

“Listen,” Dave explained. “I’m not here for vengeance or fighting. I’ve already gotten over the gunshot—that’s in the past now. I understand why you did it.”

“You do?”

“You thought you were protecting your family,” Dave said softly. “You thought you were doing the right thing, but you misunderstood the situation and because of that, I got hurt.”

“You don’t seem hurt now,” Harley huffed. “Karkat told me you’d recovered, but I didn’t want to believe him.”

The pure hate in his tone scalded Dave. It was a boiling hatred, something rooted deep with pain. It was a hate that one conversation couldn’t erase, but Dave set out to try. 

“I healed well,” Dave began, sliding closer and stopping when the old man stepped back. Outside of the shadow of the boat, his scales shone from under the water. “Porrim stitched me up and dug the bullet out of my chest. You nearly killed me.” Dave tilted his head to the side, watching the man unblinkingly. “You’re not the first human to try and end me, you know. I’ve been through some pretty bad shit before in my life, but here, now, all I want is to put all of that behind me.” Dave narrowed his eyes at the man. “Even if that means forgiving you.”

“You don’t forgive me,” Harley said at once, scoffing. “Impossible.”

“I’m trying to,” Dave admitted. “But you’re kind of making it really fucking difficult with all the unwarranted hostility.”

The man let out a rusty laugh but quickly sobered up. “Now its your turn to listen to me,” Harley said. “I’ve met your kind before. I had to watch as they lured and sang away a good friend of mine. I can only guess that they drowned him after they’d had their fun with him. It happened right here on this very island, cursed that it must be with those fearsome towers in the heart of the bay.” He straightened up, the hunch leaving his spine. “And now you’re back just like then and I can see history getting ready to repeat itself.”

Dave swallowed thickly. “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” Dave said. “I can’t explain why those other sirens did that, but they’re strangers to me. I would never hurt anyone.”

“Something tells me that’s a lie,” old man Harley said. “Let’s say you don’t want to hurt Karkat—you’re still going to. Eventually.”

Dave tilted his head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“Karkat isn’t like my children,” Harley told him matter-of-factly. “He doesn’t live on this island and in a few weeks’ time he’ll be gone again back to the mainland, and he’ll carry those hooks you left in him until the day he dies.” Harley huffed again, coughing with his rough voice. “Which will probably be far too young. Siren magic leaves scars behind everywhere it goes. The longer you spend time with him, the more he will hurt when you’re gone. That loss… its enough to drive a person mad.”

“I think you’re full of shit,” Dave forced out, feeling ill as he batted his tail back and forth. “Your knowledge of us has been patch worked together from old myths and legends—none of its fucking true.” But he was uncertain and the old man sensed his hesitation like blood in the water, shark-like. 

“You will hurt Karkat no matter what you choose to do to him,” Harley said, smugly. “It’ll happen now, or it’ll happen later, but the hurt can’t be avoided now that you’ve worked your magic on him. That bloody tripe stains worse than ink and it’s twice as permanent.”

The wording sparked an idea deep in Dave’s mind, and magic hummed in his throat that he had to swallow hastily back. “I won’t hurt him,” Dave promised, swearing it. 

“How old are you?” The man asked suddenly, squinting at him. 

“I’m sixteen, I think,” Dave answered defensively. He’d been born in the winter in a different hemisphere, he knew that much even if the details were fuzzy. 

“You’re young and lonely,” Harley told him, his gruff voice surprisingly soft. “It’s no surprise that you’d target one of the kids.” Harley sat back down in his chair, sighing in relief as his old knees were freed of their burden. He made a show of getting comfortable before he continued. “I’ve known loneliness before, siren. I’ve felt its teeth. I lived with my loneliness for years before I adopted my grandchildren.” He scratched at the hairy scruff on his cheek with one hand, considering the siren. “Where are your parents?”

Dave swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat. “Dead,” he said. “Humans killed them both.” It hadn’t mattered that his mother had been human. It hadn’t mattered that Skaia was full of children. The hunters had showed no mercy. 

Harley just nodded to himself like he’d expected he bleak answer. “So it’s just you and your siblings,” he guessed. “Why not leave this island alone, leave my family alone, and go where there are others of your kind?”

“We tried that,” Dave answered. “But something big happened that you don’t know about and it left sirens scattered across the entire globe. It’s hard to find each other now when everyone’s focused on staying hidden.”

“I don’t suppose you’d tell me why?” Harley inquired shrewdly. 

“Nope,” Dave said cheerfully, popping his lips on the p. “That’s privileged information.”

“Does Karkat know?” Harley guessed, and Dave fell silent. The old man’s eyes glittered. “Hmmm,” he said, settling into his chair, the fishing pole in his hand. “Just remember this,” Harley warned him, testing the pull on his reel. “Hooks, they have barbs. They do twice as much damage coming out as they do going in, siren.”

Dave swallowed thickly. “I’ll remember that,” he said. “And my name’s Dave.”

“I know,” Harley said, reeling up his line only to cast it out again, clearly set on ignoring Dave’s presence as he fished. 

Unsettled, Dave sank back below the surface and flared his fins to hide his unease. Before he left, he stole the bait of the old man’s hook just to be petty as Harley’s words bounced around in the confines of his skull like ripples across the water’s surface. 

…

Karkat hiked down to the bay at lunch, swatting overhanging leaves and palm fronds out of his way as his feet followed the clear trail marked in the dirt. 

The eye of the bay was a stunning blue under the cloudy sky, which was blessedly overcast today from a storm system moving to the west. The cool sea breeze brought a breath of relief to the burning sun Karkat had been enduring for the past few weeks. 

The water was still and unbroken, small ripples all that showed in the protected cove. In the distance, he could hear waves bashing themselves to pieces against the reef. There was sand between his toes. 

Karkat quickly waded into the water without taking off his shirt. The wet fabric stuck to him before billowing out in the brine as he waded deeper. The calls of seagulls filled the air and Karkat felt peaceful as the water lapped at his neck. He slid the goggles over his eyes and ducked under the surface to scope out his surroundings.

Crystal clear water surrounded him, clean white sand underfoot until the reef bits, corals, and seaweed overtook the bottom of the bay the closer to the towers he waded. There was a buzzing in his ears, a hushed whisper that he could only barely make out but instinctively recognized as siren song. 

Someone was singing. 

Karkat knew he should have felt afraid, but not a touch of fear reached him. It sounded like Dave, his voice singing softly from under the waves. It was quiet enough that Karkat couldn’t make out any words even if there were words; he just felt the skim of magic buzzing peacefully around him. The water was full of fish, brimming with life. 

Karkat caught the scarlet of Dave’s gleaming scales from the ocean floor. Rose was with him, and Dave was singing softly to himself as Rose devoured a fish bite by bite. 

It was such a weird dichotomy of scenes that the sight made Karkat feel woozy. It was such a nice domestic scene of the two sirens chilling together except for the cloud of blood that hovered around Rose’s head as she went to fucking town on that poor fish with her teeth. 

The singing didn’t cut off as Karkat cautiously swam closer. The two sirens were about twenty five yards below him but he knew there was no way in hell they weren’t aware of exactly where he was. He’d seen Dave pinpoint fish smaller than his hand just by feeling their motion though the water against his scales—they both knew Karkat was there. 

The thought was cemented when Rose looked up and waved at him, her red-stained smile bright and happy. Dave was still singing softly to himself, almost humming with the shifting tide. The sound died off as the red siren spiraled upright through the water to greet him, surfacing a few feet away. 

“Hey Karkat,” Dave said happily, unperturbed by his sister still mauling a large animal below them.

“Did I interrupt your dinner?” Karkat teased curiously. 

“More like joined,” Dave joked, grinning. “Which is, by the way, both awesome and entirely welcome.”

Karkat snorted, blushing but trying to hide it. “That’s good to know,” he joked right back, paddling in the water. “I’d hate to mooch on your raw fish.”

Dave shrugged. “Don’t knock it until you try it. Raw fish is the shit.”

Karkat tried to put the idea of sharing a raw, bloody fish with Dave out of his mind. It was a disconcerting image and the opposite of romantic. “Where you singing just then?”

Dave didn’t pause, exactly, but his body language did change to become not as open and friendly. His shoulders shrank in on himself. “Yeah.”

Karkat was instantly anxious. Was he intruding after all? “I didn’t mean to interrupt—”

“You didn’t interrupt anything,” Dave said quickly. “There wasn’t any magic to it, just normal song.”

“Oh,” Karkat said, surprised. “Do you sing like that often? Just for fun?”

“Not really,” Dave admitted, looking uncomfortable. “I’m not the biggest fan of singing.”

Karkat blinked. “Really?”

“Really,” Dave confirmed. 

His mind wandering over that, Karkat continued to paddle upright. “Hey, listen,” he said. “There was actually something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Okay,” Dave said, looking excited. “What is it?”

“It might be easier to speak when I’m not exhausting myself in the middle of the bay,” Karkat pointed out, his legs rapidly growing tired. He might have gotten better at swimming but he still had next to zero endurance. It was kind of embarrassing really. 

“Sure,” Dave said, his tail beating smoothly as he made for the shallower water of the beach. Karkat swam after him, kicking his legs to battle his way to shore.

He stopped when his feet could comfortably reach the sandy floor, wary of tracking too close to the water’s edge for Dave’s peace of mind.

“What is it?” The siren asked curiously. “And beware—Rose is 100% listening in on us.”

Karkat gulped, unsure of how to voice his problem with Sollux. “I have a friend back home,” he started uncertainly. “I haven’t told him about you or about any of this, but I did ask him to look something up on the web for me.”

Dave blinked slowly, non-comprehending.

“The internet,” Karkat supplied helpfully. “It’s a computer thing for machines.”

“Oh,” Dave said. “Like a telephone?”

“Sort of,” Karkat reasoned. “People can talk over it and look up information. My friend Sollux, he’s a really good hacker and I asked him to look into siren hunters to see if we can find out more about the group of people who attacked you and your family all those years ago.”

Dave blinked again at the turn of the conversation, shocked. “The hunters?” He all but whispered. His hands were in sudden fists at his sides. 

Karkat nodded, feeling irrationally guilty. “I thought if we knew more about them it could help you and other sirens avoid them easier. I was hoping to help keep you safe.”

“And?” Dave asked, fearful. 

“I don’t know what they call themselves,” Karkat admitted. “But Sollux thinks he found out how they managed to track down Skaia.”

Dave’s chin tilted to the side, interested despite his stupor. 

“Here’s the timeline I’m working with,” Karkat said. “Fell free to interrupt me if I’m wrong. Skaia was an island where every year sirens and humans who were involved with them could meet each other. That kind of worldwide travel leaves records behind, and I’m betting that the humans there kept track of the other human friends they made while on the island.”

“It was a huge social event,” Dave nodded, his face serious. “Many sirens went every year, though not us since we stayed so far away most of the time.”

“Where was Skaia, by the way?” Karkat asked curiously. 

“Off the coast of West Africa,” Dave shrugged away the question as Karkat bit his tongue in shock at the distance. That was so far away. They were in the South Pacific now. 

“Okay,” Karkat said, returning to his rundown. “So the humans probably kept tabs on each other, and Sollux found out that these hunters have flagged certain words to pop up a tracking algorithm if caught, and that explains how they found the island in the first place, unless they had an inside source.”

“I always thought it was a traitor,” Dave muttered “Someone who gave us up.”

“Maybe not,” Karkat said. “With this tracking of flagged words, they would easily have found the island on their own.”

“So?” Dave asked, cutting to the point.

“So the hunters are still working with this flagged words system,” Karkat explained. “Anytime someone sees a siren, or talks about one, or uses the word Skaia itself even—the hunters know.”

“That’s bad,” Dave said at once. “That’s really, really fuckin’ bad.”

“I know.”

“What can we do?”

“Sollux is working to find out more about who these people are, and how to stop them,” Karkat said. “It would be incredibly useful if he could find a way to disrupt their signals or feed them false information. It could save siren lives, lots of them.”

“But?” Dave asked, hearing the unsaid word.

“But he isn’t exactly a willing cooperant,” Karkat admitted. “He’s been working so far as a favor to me, and I don’t know how long that favor will last. Plus there’s the risk of him digging deep enough into the hunters that he finds out the truth about you and your family on his own.”

“So there’s a chance that in finding out more about the hunters, he discovers the truth about us?” Dave asked, his expression unreadable. 

“It’s not unlikely, knowing how thorough Sollux is,” Karkat said. “I don’t know how much he’s managed to put together on his own, but it’s enough to make him suspicious.”

Dave closed his eyes and put his hand to his face, rubbing at the bridge on his nose. “How well do you know this friend?”

“I’ve known Sollux for years,” Karkat said proudly. “I won’t hesitate to call him my closest friend after John, who almost counts more as a cancerous growth of comradery that’s currently permanently stuck to my body for the remainder of this vacation.”

“But do you trust him?” Dave asked, worried. 

“I do.” Karkat looked at the siren, his gaze steady. “I’d trust him with my life.”

Dave fretted. “I don’t know,” he said, worried. “As much as I want to have some kind of weapon to use against the hunters, I can’t really risk more people finding out that we exist. That isn’t my call to make.” Dave looked at Karkat, his voice trembling. “I’m already breaking the Empress’s rules by being with you.”

“I know,” Karkat said, understanding in a kind but distant way. All he knew of secrets were that sometimes, they had to be kept because they weren’t his to give away. Like with Slick and his mobster bullshit. Or now, with Dave and the existence of his species. 

“But,” Dave said slowly, working through the issue. “If you can keep him working on this project until he can either help or inadvertently finds out on his own, then technically I wouldn’t have told him and haven’t broken the rules.”

“Loopholes,” Karkat nodded appreciatively. Terezi would be proud. “Do you think that will work?”

“I think it’s worth the risk,” Dave said, shrugging. “I can’t say that I don’t want to know more about the people that killed my parents, but its mostly this drive to help protect other families that has my interest… do you really think Sollux can do that?”

“Track down the hunters?” Karkat asked. “Definitely. He’s the best hacker I know and if they’re online—he can find them.”

“Okay,” Dave said his eyes steady as a rock in the waves. “I’ll trust you give him enough information to keep working, but don’t tell him about us yourself. If he finds out, he finds out. As long as we don’t come out and tell him ourselves the Empress can’t rip my scales out one by one in retribution.”

Karkat winced. “She would do that?”

“Maybe not,” Dave said, gulping. “I’m good friends with her daughter the Heiress. Maybe Feferi can convince her to go easy on me.”

“Dave,” Karkat said sweetly. “What the fuck.”

Dave shrugged again. “It’s nothing to worry about now,” he said, cagey. “And besides, scales grow back.”

Karkat looked out over the calm mirrored surface of the bay, formulating the plan as it came to him. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll do that, now go and get back to your dinner before Rose eats it all. I’ll go message Sollux for you.”

Dave laughed, braking the tension as he turned to go. “Alright,” he said. “I trust you, Karkat.”

Karkat gulped thickly. “I trust you too,” he said, and wondered what it was that made him worthy of that sort of thing. 

…

carcinoGeneticist (CG) began Pestering twinArmageddons (TA) at 6:21pm!

CG: SOLLUX, ARE YOU THERE?  
TA: oh look, iit’2 you.  
TA: diid you 2peak two thii2 elu2iive dave? what’s hii2 verdiict, oh hiigh and miighty kk?  
CG: HEY YOU CAN DROP THE DEJECTED SHIT. SARCASM ISN’T A GOOD LOOK ON YOU.  
TA: fuck you ii’m the one being kept iin the fuckiing dark. ii de2erve a liittle 2elf-riighteou2 mopiing  
CG: JUST SHUT THE HELL UP THAT’S WHAT I’M HERE TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT, YOU MORON.  
TA: really?  
CG: YES, REALLY.  
CG: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?  
TA: tell me who dave ii2.  
CG: HE’S SOMEONE VERY IMPORTANT TO ME THAT I TRUST COMPLETELY.  
TA: iif he’2 2omeone clo2e two you why haven’t ii heard of hiim before?  
CG: WE ONLY MET A FEW WEEKS AGO.  
TA: bull2hiit. the tiimeliines don’t match up. you’ve been 2tuck on hellmurder for nearly two months.  
CG: I MET HIM WHILE ON HELLMURDER YOU DIPSHIT.  
TA: oh. pe2terchum?  
CG: NOT EXACTLY.  
CG: FACE TO FACE REALLY.  
TA: but you saiid that only jade and her famiily liived on that ii2land?  
CG: I WAS WRONG. DAVE AND HIS FAMILY LIVE HERE TOO BUT THAT’S NOT REALLY IMPORTANT.  
TA: ii beg two fuckiing diiffer—you expliiciitly told me that dave diidn’t liive on the iisland  
CG: WELL ITS SUPPOSED TO BE A FUCKING SECRET ISN’T IT?  
TA: oh fuck thii2 is some wiit2ec shiit ii2n’t iit?  
TA: oh shiit oh shiit iit ii2 iit all makes 2en2e.  
CG: NO THE FUCK IT DOESN’T—WITNESS PROTECTION MY ASS.  
CG: HAVE YOU FOUND OUT MORE ABOUT THOSE FLAGGED WORDS AND THE PEOPLE BEHIND THEM?  
TA: ye2. the megiidos  
CG: WANNA TRADE ANSWER FOR ANSWER?  
TA: fiine, but you go fir2t.  
CG: JUST DID. DAVE LIVES ON THE ISLAND. THAT’S YOUR FIRST ANSWER. RIGHT THERE.  
TA: bull2hiit. you’re playiing diirty  
CG: I THOUGHT THAT’S WHAT YOU LIKED?  
TA: you’re a de2piicable human beiing, you know that?  
TA: fine. ii’m trackiing the word2 and the code2 and the 2ignal2 are bounciing all over the globe, 2uggestiing a worldwiide network, a portable home ba2e, or many, many men pa22iing iinformatiion between them2elve2 to 2cramble the 2iignal.  
CG: WHICH IS MORE LIKELY?  
TA: in truth? all of them. iit’2 probably a liittle of them all. My be2t gue22 ii2 that, ba2ed on the erratic 2ignal2 and 2ea-ba2ed hiits, that they’re operating from a 2hiip. 2everal 2hiips, actually. ii’ve got hiits from the galapago2 two the artic ciircle two the mediiterranean. they’re everywhere.  
CG: OH FUCK.  
CG: ARE YOU SURE?  
TA: very  
CG: THAT’S NOT GOOD.  
TA: why not?  
CG: IS THAT YOUR QUESTION?  
TA: 2ure why the fuck not?  
CG: I’M TRYING TO SEE IF THERE’S A SAFE PLACE IN THE WORLD, SOMEWHERE THESE PEOPLE DON’T HAVE AN EYE OR EAR IN.  
TA: that’2 a 2trong negative from what liittle ii’ve 2een, and a curiiou2 an2wer.  
CG: NOPE—MY TURN NOW FUCKER.  
CG: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I COULD ASK SO LISTEN UP—CAN YOU SHUT IT DOWN?  
TA: god no  
TA: iif ii attempt to erase the flag they’ll ju2t add iit right back and hunt me down for me22iing wiith theiir 2y2tem2. iit2 2uiiciide and ii’m not joking about that. from what liittle ii’ve found out the2e are not the people two me22 wiith.  
TA: but you knew that, diidn’t you?  
TA: that’2 my fuckiing questiion kk. answer up.  
CG: OKAY, YES. THEY’VE HURT PEOPLE BEFORE FOR GETTING IN THEIR WAY SO BE CAREFUL, SOLLUX. I DON’T WANT TO RISK ANYTHING HAPPENING TO YOU BECAUSE I ASKED YOU TO POKE AROUND IN DANGEROUS PLACES.  
TA: ii poke around iin dangerou2 place2 all the tiime.  
CG: NOT LIKE THIS. SOLLUX… THEY’VE KILLED PEOPLE. THAT’S WHY I’M AKING YOU TO DO THIS FOR ME—THEY’RE AFTER DAVE AND HIS FAMILY NOW.  
TA: 2o that’2 why theyre hiidiing out on hellmurder. ii2 thii2 2ome kIind of blood feud cult thing?  
CG: KINDA? IT’S HARD TO EXPLAIN BUT MAYBE? THAT’S THE EASIEST DEFINITION I GUESS.  
TA: ok wow. 2hiiit.  
TA: ii had a feeling iit wa2 2eriou2 but…  
CG: I DIDN’T WANT TO BELIEVE IT EITHER.  
TA: fuck.  
CG: I’M JUST TRYING TO HELP DAVE AND HIS FAMILY STAY SAFE.  
TA: do you really thiink the2e guy2 wiill go after hiIm?  
CG: I’M CERTAIN OF IT.  
TA: kk how the fuck do you attract all of thii2 danger two you? can’t you ju2t be normal for once? between your foster dad and thii2 ii’m 2urprii2ed you haven’t been kiidnapped yet.  
CG: LET’S NOT TEMPT FATE BY SAYING THOSE WORDS OUT LOUD. I DON’T THINK I’D LIKE BEING KIDNAPPED.  
TA: no one liike2 being kiidnapped dumba22.  
CG: WELL FUCK YOU TOO.  
CG: ARE WE DONE HERE OR?  
TA: no  
TA: ii have one la2 que2tiion.  
CG: IT’S NOT YOUR TURN.  
TA: fuck off ii’m a2kiing iit.  
TA: 2o  
TA: how long do you thiink iit wiill take me two fiigure out the truth on my own?  
CG: CAN I ASK THAT YOU NOT? FOR ME? THIS TRUTH CAN HURT PEOPLE, SOLLUX, AND ITS NOT MY TRUTH TO TELL.  
TA: ii can re2pect that but iit’2 not goiing to 2top me.  
TA: ii wiill fiind out what you’re hiidiing. for your own 2ake. ii’m clo2e enough to thii2 my2tery a2 iit i2—iit’s only a matter of tiime.  
TA: only a matter of tiime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a nice chapter. We have character growth, shenanigans, and a dash of plot just to season things. This is the absolute end of the slow chapters-- forever. After this the plot runs hot all the way to the end as everything starts crashing together in the best possible way. Get ready for another 120k of straight plot. It's on now. The fatal mistake has been made and things have been set into motion that can't be undone. (No one figured out what it was btw, which is nice, because that means it'll come as a surprise) 
> 
> I'm literally so excited. Everything up to now had been setting the stage. And it's go time.


	16. chapter five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's double-update Day! That means we get a new chapter of When the Ocean Calls and The Fall of Rome! That's well over 10k worth of updates. Yay!
> 
> This chapter is a beast too. Long, and full of fluff and plot things happening

Karkat felt guilty as the days counted down and he spent more and more time with Dave. His three-month vacation was ticking away every time the sun set. He only had little time left until school started again and he went back to Seattle with John, the Maryams, and Jade and Jake. 

And he’d have to leave Dave behind. The siren lived in the sea; his home was craggy sea beds and towers of island coral. And besides, Seattle might have been a port city but Karkat would have put money on those cold waters being shit for sirens to be in. Polluted, overfished, crowded sea-lanes were no place for Dave or his family. 

Which made the looming heartbreak all the more real and Dave had no idea.

Thus the guilt Karkat felt that curdled in his lungs like spoiled milk until he felt sick with it. Dave didn’t know, or more likely since John never shut up about going back home the siren had categorized Karkat’s leaving as a distant thing and not in less than four weeks. 

But the inherent unpleasantness of such a discussion turned Karkat’s tongue to mush. He soldiered through it though. Karkat had always been one to address his problems loudly and directly in all cases save those which dealt with himself as the oppressor. Everything else was fair game. 

Which meant that today he had to tell Dave that he was leaving in a few weeks. 

The very thought ruined Karkat’s morning as he downed a glass of soured orange juice that was God knows how old. The plane that dropped supplies to Hellmurder for the Harley/English’s to live off of only came once a month, and these oranges were the furthest thing from fresh he’d ever had the misfortune of tasting, like a citrusy rat’s ass on a hot morning but with a more acidic bite to it. Anyway downing the glass felt like a final fuck you to his good mood and he left the kitchen feeling sick with nerves, his food untouched. 

Karkat met Jade in the living room on his way out the door. Jade was angrily ripping the wiring out of an odd device she held between her hands, sparks popping. Her over-large safety glasses reflected the bright sunlight from the window so that Karkat couldn’t read her expression, but her grimace could have been seen from the mainland. 

“Jade,” Karkat said, surprised. “What are you doing up so early?”

Jade stuck her tongue out at him, concentrating on the device in her hands. “I’m always up this early, remember?” She told him. “You and John are the ones who like to sleep in.”

Karkat shrugged, listless as his mind ran through a dozen different scenarios with Dave and his upcoming confession. With every second his anxiety grew. 

“Anyway,” Jade said, interrupting his inner musing. “Can you do me a favor and hand me that blowtorch?”

“What?” Karkat said, looking at the carefully assembled chaos of the various tools scattered around her. 

“The blowtorch to your left,” Jade snapped at him, the wires between her fingers popping. 

Karkat made a grab for the heavy thing and passed it to her. Jade took it without looking up from her work as she reached for a darkly-tinted face shield. 

“Uh,” Karkat felt the urge to interrogate her as he watched a girl his age prepare to handle a blowtorch indoors and unsupervised. “What the ever loving fuck are you doing?”

“Science!” Jade said happily, and she lit the blowtorch. Karkat knew better than to look directly into the white-hot flame as Jade set it to the device and a cascade of sparks rained down. “Wanna help me? It’s for that fancy school well be joining on the mainland with you.”

“What? Fucking Public School Number Nine?” Karkat asked, feeling incredulous as he witnessed the robotic monstrosity Jade was constructing as she expertly wielded a pair of rabbit ears onto the hunk of wires. “It’s a shithole school.”

“But it has a robotics team,” Jade said, humming to herself as she worked. “And I’m determined to join it, instigate a semi-hostile takeover if needed, and lead the team myself to victory!” Sparks popped and jolted at her words, and through her thick gloves Karkat could see metal melting. 

What the fuck was wrong with this family? What victory was she talking about? He stared at her in disbelief. “Well, if you need help burning your family house down, don’t hesitate to call John. I bet he’d love that kind of unbridled chaos.”

“I doubt it,” She answered, the facemask shielding her expressing from him. He could barely hear her over the whoosh of the flame. Fuck, blowtorches were loud. 

“Just don’t let Porrim see you,” Karkat warned, and then he put Jade and her mad fucked creation behind him as he opened the door and slipped outside. 

It was a nice day, like most of the days here. It might have even been nicer than most due to a fresh breeze that graced its way through the trees to keep the oppressive heat from becoming stagnant. He knew that this early in the day Dave would be on the other side of the island with his family, but Karkat headed for the pier and the cove that still held the soggy hammock from before Dave’s injury. 

The wet sand crusted itself to his bare feet as he kicked off his shoes and took off his shirt. He basically lived in his black swim trunks now so he didn’t hesitate to wade into the cool water after checking for his nemesis— jellyfish. 

The white hammock drifted in and out with each gentle passing swell. Here the waves only rolled up onto the sand in inch-high intervals, their force lost among the rocks that shielded the small cove. One side of the hammock was still standing, but the pole that led underwater down into the sand had given way and the hammock hung limply now, neglected after so long spend abandoned. 

It took some work to get the pole hammered upright again. The end was underwater and he had to hold his breath to pile the rocks back into place to make it strong enough to support his weight. 

Karkat sat back in the shallow cove to study his handiwork. It looked like it would hold, but now came the unpleasant part—the waiting. He was early enough in the day that Dave wouldn’t be on this side of the island until the sun was close to setting.

Honestly he should just go back to the house to wait, except that with the snakes squirming through his belly at the thought of the upcoming conversation that he was even now dreading the thought of stagnating indoors in his room with John was abhorrent. 

And so he waited for the sun to set and the siren to appear.

…

Dave’s sunsets were reserved for Karkat. As soon as the sky began to hint at orange in the western sky Dave headed for the far side of the island to meet with Karkat beside the dock.

This time when he swam around the curve of the shoreline and the house on the hill came into sight, light pouring out of its square windows, he found Karkat already in the water clearly waiting on him to appear.

Delighted, Dave swam closer. He stuck to the sea floor were his fins disturbed the fine sand with every stroke of his tail. With the sun dying in response to the rising moon the water down here was darker, but Dave’s eyes could make out the finest particles of light that filtered down from the surface. To him the white sand shone, every dip and highlight thrown in stark relief in the shadows. 

Then the floor sloped up towards the shore, where he knew eventually the sea ended and dry land began. The thought send a pang on unease through him. The very idea that there were places on Earth where the sea just didn’t exist was terrifying. 

Karkat was in the small cove in the lee of the pier where the waves were reduced to gentle rolling nothings. Dave touched the surface to let the human know that he was here, sending ripples through the water. He still lived in fear of one day scaring Karkat away with his different-ness, as if it were somehow possible that Karkat would wake up one morning and realize that Dave was a fish monster.

But then he caught sight of Karkat’s smile and the dark idea left him completely at the joy on Karkat’s face. As long as Dave could continue to draw such lovely expressions out of Karkat, everything would be okay. 

“Hey,” Dave said, surfacing to shake the excess water out of his hair.

Karkat was still grinning, but now, up close, Dave could easily spot something else lurking below his happy expression. The idea was confirmed when Karkat answered back, “Hello, Dave” with a tremor in his tone.

“What’s wrong?” Dave asked, worried as he swam closer. He tilted his head to the side but couldn’t detect anything amiss in the water or see anything hiding on the shore under the trees. It was growing darker still and the tree line was a wall of shadow.

Karkat sighed tiredly and the smile fell off his face as he rubbed at his eyes. “How did you know something was wrong?” he asked curiously. 

A pit began to form in Dave’s stomach. “Lucky guess,” he said, shrugging to cover up his sudden anxiety. “I could hear the warble in your voice.”

“Oh,” Karkat said flatly. He stood there in the water. It was high tide and the brine covered his chest but left his shoulders dry. 

“So,” Dave trailed off nervously, his fins slicking down to his body with anxiety. “What’s wrong?”

“I think we need to talk,” Karkat burst out like he’d been barely holding the words back, then immediately looked embarrassed. “Sorry, it’s not quite that bad, but it is serious.”

“Okay, damn,” Dave said, leaning back in the non-existent current. “What’s up? I’m kind of freaking the fuck out now.”

Karkat winced. “I don’t want to make you freak out,” he complained. “It’s just, there’s been something bothering me.”

“Like?” Dave pressed, struggling to understand. 

“Dave, I can’t stay here forever,” Karkat said, and before Dave could react to that Karkat was barreling on in a gush of explanation. “Like, summer’s almost over and when it ends I have to go back home to the mainland. To Seattle. That’s where I live, that’s where my home is. My home was never Hellmurder. I have to leave soon and it’s tearing me up inside because I don’t see a way to change it but I don’t want to leave you.”

Dave blinked, speechless. The sun had fully set behind him and the crescent moon was rising, but even in the faint light Dave could make out the glimmer of frustrated tears in Karkat’s eyes. “Hey,” He said softly, concerned as he darted forward to take Karkat’s hand. “Karkat? Karkat listen to me—I know.”

Karkat froze underneath Dave’s touch. “You do?”

“I’d guessed,” Dave elaborated. “Remember, I watched you move in with Porrim, Kanaya, and John. I’m under no illusions that your stay here on this island was a permanent event.”

“Then, then why did you let me kiss you?” Karkat demanded to know, his posture slumping and miserable. “Why make my leaving so much harder than it needed to be?”

“Did you regret kissing me?” Dave asked seriously. 

“No,” Karkat admitted. 

“Do you regret letting me kiss you back?”

“NO.”

Dave shrugged and clasped Karkat’s hand in both of his, curling his fingers between Karkat’s. “Trust me, I’ve already turned that same idea over and over in my mind until it just about drove me mad. I tried my hardest to stay away from you in the beginning, even with Rose assuring me that we were doing the right thing by choosing to interact with you and your friends, but then you kissed me and I realized how foolish I was. I couldn’t stay away.”

Karkat’s eyes were wide. “Even knowing that I wasn’t going to stay forever?”

“Even then,” Dave answered, trying to explain as he spoke from the heart. “I choose not to focus on what the future holds. Dwelling on what might or might not happen is the surest way to kill the present. Besides, it was a simple choice. Stay away and feel miserable for the rest of my life wondering what if, or say fuck it and enjoy everything that I could have with you no matter what the future might hold. The future can fuck right off with all of its unknowable possibilities and such bullshit—I’d much prefer to spend the present right here with you rather than stress over what fresh hell the future might hold.”

Now Karkat was crying for real, silent tears that ran down his face. 

“Hey,” Dave said gently, tilting his face up to meet his eyes. “I knew what I was getting into when we decided to be boyfriends.”

“Even if I’ll break your heart when I leave?” Karkat asked tearfully. 

Dave chuckled to himself, tail swishing. “Karkat,” he said seriously. “Broken hearts have meaning—they hold weight. A broken heart means you gave enough of yourself to someone else that it tore a hole when they left, and like a broken bone such a wound makes the heart stronger. It’s a sacred thing to feel so strongly about someone else that they break your heart. I wouldn’t give up knowing you for the world, even when I always knew that you were going to break my heart.”

“Goddammit,” Karkat swore, but there was a small grin hovering around his lips. “You can’t just say shit like that to me and not expect me to fall in love with you.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Dave questioned, blushing, his heart pounding faster at the mention of the word love.

“It might be when I’m trying to reconcile the idea that in a little over three weeks I’ll be leaving you,” Karkat said, and he was blushing too, like he’d realized what he’d just said a moment too late to take it back and was trying to cover it up. 

Dave’s heart gave a lurch. “Three weeks?” He said to derail the suddenly tense atmosphere. 

“More like four really,” Karkat said miserably. “And I can’t even lie and say it’ll be okay because you’ll still have Jake and Jade here to talk to, but even that’s not right because they’re coming with us back to the mainland to start their senior year of school with us.”

“Ah,” Dave sighed, dejected. “So it’ll just be us sirens and the crazy old guy with a gun?”

“Yeah,” Karkat sighed too, mirroring him. “Sorry about that. It fucking sucks.”

Dave felt the melancholy settle over him and shook himself to throw it off, shivering. “So, four weeks?”

“Four weeks,” Karkat nodded sadly. “That’s the time that we have left.”

The sudden, painful blaze of the idea that had been circling around the back of Dave’s mind over the past few days broke through with shocking brilliance. “Hey,” Dave said, and Karkat’s eyes cut up to his own with hope. “What if I could give you something special, something that would stay with you even after you leave?”

“A siren thing?” Karkat asked almost in a whisper. 

“Exactly,” Dave answered. “Sirens have a way to mark humans as friends and allies. It takes a bit of magic but once is done its permanent.”

“A mark?” Karkat asked curiously, interested.

“Like a tattoo,” Dave explained. “A permeant mark like that, but one that’s got a spark of magic in it. In the past it was gifted to special humans as a way to identify and protect them. Some sirens swear the magic the mark carries grants good luck, good health, and a long life.” His voice grew quieter, wistful. “My mother carried such a mark, and so did most of the humans who were invited to Skaia.” 

“Does it hurt?” Karkat asked, and there was steel in his voice, a willingness to power through if Dave answered yes, very badly in fact.

“Not even a little,” Dave teased. “A gift like this isn’t meant to hurt.”

“Is it hard to do?” Karkat questioned, still curious. 

“I’m not sure,” Dave admitted nervously. He ran a hand through his water-slick hair. “I’ve never done it before or seen it accomplished, but we don’t have to do it now. It’s just something to think about.”

“No,” Karkat shook his head. “It’s permanent, right? Like tattoos?” His gaze turned sharp and wistful. “I’ve always wanted a tattoo.”

“Really?” Dave asked hopefully.

“Really,” Karkat confirmed, nodding enthusiastically. “The only reason I don’t have one now is Slick said he’d kill me if I ever dared to darken his doorstep wearing a tattoo he didn’t approve of, but fuck him and fuck his mobster ‘all tats have meaning to gangmembers’ bullshit.”

“So you want to do it?” Dave asked, and he couldn’t help but feel a flutter of excitement burn through him.

“Let’s do it,” Karkat agreed. “I’m not going to change my mind sometime within the next four weeks, so why not go ahead and get it done?”

“Okay, okay,” Dave said happily, then his gaze turned wicked as he dropped his voice low and sultry. “But first… tell me why you want it.”

Karkat just about swallowed his tongue—Dave could tell from the expression on his face and laughed as Karkat splashed at him. 

“Fuck off,” Karkat complained, laughing. “You know that smoldering eye bullshit isn’t fair.”

“I know,” Dave said shamelessly, and he flicked his fins. “I know you have a thing for my eyes.”

“They are beautiful,” Karkat said, swallowing thickly as Dave came closer. He looked nervous as he asked, “How do you want to do this?”

Dave considered the question, going with his gut instinct. “It would probably be easier if we were both on the hammock.” 

Karkat nodded. “Okay.” He backed away, waving his arms to keep his balance as he made his way across the sandy bottom in the rising darkness. 

Dave followed after him with a flick of his tail. He couldn’t hide the eagerness building in his belly with upcoming excitement. 

The moonlight had turned the water to ink. Dark, but with a shimmer to the surface where the light danced across it, disturbed into beauty by ripples as Karkat climbed into the submerged hammock. 

Dave waited to let Karkat situate himself before hesitantly climbing aboard. The sway of the net underneath his weight made a thrill run through him. Karkat’s skin was slick and warm underneath his hands as he shivered. 

“What do I have to do?” Karkat asked. His dark eyes were calm and steady as a rock in the waves as he pulled Dave closer with an arm around his waist. 

Dave felt himself settle into place flush against him and tried not to squirm from the feeling of it. Instead he leaned in closer. His gills were mostly out of the water and breathing air was high key distressingly uncomfortable so he had to dip low enough in the hammock to keep his gills covered. 

In response Karkat scooted lower so he’d be more comfortable, sinking into the water.

“You don’t have to do anything,” Dave promised, his confidence growing as he felt magic swirl up the back of his throat to coat his tongue in warm sparks. That was when Dave kissed him, because Karkat was so close and kissable, his lips irresistibly warm as Dave hummed into them, alight with magic that he could taste.

Karkat reacted by gasping into his open mouth. His fingers embedded themselves in Dave’s pale hair. 

The slight tug of them sent a shiver down the full length of Dave’s spine as his fins flared. He wanted to press closer but was wary of having so much of his body exposed to the air, and wary of hurting Karkat with his weight, or toppling the hammock back into the still waters of the cove, so he let the end of his tail drape errantly over the side, the fin curling with pleasure. 

“Jesus,” Karkat gasped, his eyes wide. Dave could see the stars caught in his pupils. “What are you doing to me?”

Dave laughed and the sound was muffled as he buried his face into the crook of Karkat’s neck, tracing his lips across the skin there. “Nothing yet,” he answered, breathing the words across the shell of Karkat’s ear. “Just relax—I’ve got you.”

Karkat’s breath shook but he nodded, giving into Dave’s touch. His head tilted to the side, giving Dave better access to his throat as Dave’s hand came up to press across the pulse that he could feel pounding under his lips. Dave kissed him deeper, feeling how tense and wound up with nerves Karkat was. 

Slowly Karkat relaxed bit by bit as Dave worked his lips across his skin, careful not to make a move that wasn’t expected, wasn’t welcomed. He was still humming, and magic swirled around them and focused in on where his lips met Karkat’s skin, the connection between them singing as little by little Dave kissed more and more of the wild magic into him.

Dave went slow and steady. He felt like this could be over in an instant but he wanted to draw it out. He liked the feeling of having Karkat so close. He liked the feeling of lips against smooth skin, and he especially liked the way that Karkat’s breath hitched every time Dave kissed him, his fingers woven in Dave’s hair. 

Dave moved over him, his lips seeking the small hollow beneath Karkat’s collarbone. This part was instinct, leading him to the exact place to gently set the seal on Karkat’s skin with his lips, marking him with a jolt of pure magic that immediately sank beneath the surface and vanished. 

The zing of magic faded from his mouth but Dave still kept kissing him soft and slow until he heard Karkat’s racing breath begin to slow back down.

“There,” Dave said, picking his head up to stare at him. “All done.”

Karkat stared at him, his lips swollen, hair deliciously tousled. Even in the dark his eyes shone with emotion. Karkat drug him back up to kiss him again and Dave happily complied. The way their mouths fit together was miraculous. Dave would never tire of this. 

Karkat broke free to examine the skin where he’d felt the magic sink into him. He sounded disappointed when he said, “I don’t see anything.”

“Give it a few days,” Dave said, snuggling next to him. He’d never felt so at peace before, drawn out and languid as he pressed himself close to Karkat’s side as the human put an arm around him. “It’ll show up soon.”

Karkat huffed and settled into place beside him, chuckling to himself, grinning. “You sound tired. Did that wear you out?”

“No,” Dave yawned. He was so content that he couldn’t be fucked to move. He could have stayed in this hammock with Karkat forever. 

Karkat put his head on Dave’s shoulder. Their fingers were laced together. “Are you actually going to go to sleep on me?” He questioned curiously. 

Dave shrugged one shoulder and yawed again, completely comfortable. He felt his eyelids droop. “Maybe.” He let his eyes drift shut. He did feel remarkably tired. He hadn’t expected the magic it had taken to mark Karkat to take that much out of him. “Did you feel it? The magic?”

He felt more than heard Karkat’s heavy swallow. “Yeah.”

Dave shifted slightly just to look at him, opening his eyes. “How did it feel?”

Karkat kissed him again and Dave could feel himself smiling. 

“It felt like you,” Karkat told him, running his thumb across the back of Dave’s hand. “Good. Nice. Like how I feel when I hear you singing, but deeper.”

Dave closed his eyes again. The tide was coming in and there was enough water in the hammock now for him to lay comfortably snuggled up to Karkat, but he still had to speak the words. He knew how little Karkat cared for getting saturated for hours. “You should get some sleep tonight. Out of the water, I mean.”

Karkat simple shrugged, unmoving. “No,” he said softly. “I think I’ll be okay right here with you.”

Dave couldn’t describe the feeling that flooded his chest. Warm. Glowing like a wave’s edge caught behind the sun as it washed over him. He held his tongue, alight with the feeling. He felt like giggling. “Porrim won’t like it.”

“It’s okay,” Karkat said, sounding guilty. “One night without me won’t hurt her, and I’m sure John will cover for me.”

Dave just grunted in acknowledgement, sighing as he drifted closer and closer to sleep. He couldn’t bring himself to argue, not when he felt like this. He could hear Karkat’s heart beating comfortingly close to him, and its steady rhythm was the last thing he heard as the moon rose higher overhead. 

…

The mark took three days to appear. It started out as a smudge, a darker shadow under the skin that slowly gained sharpness and clarity as the hours passed. When it was finished coming in, it did look almost exactly like a tattoo. Stark black, the edges crisp and clean, with a glimmer to it where the mark caught the light. 

It was the shape that surprised him. Two parts that didn’t quite touch, caught in an endless circle. Cancer, the mark of the tropics, of the zodiac. 

In a way it intrigued him, the knowledge that the mark of the sirens was identical to that of the zodiac, but where the two marks intersected was a mystery lost to time. Had ancient humans been more in touch with sirens? Was their existence not a secret back then? With all of the tangled folklore surrounding them, Karkat wasn’t sure what he believed. 

That didn’t stop Karkat from instantly cherishing the mark, and not just because Dave had given it to him. The sign was proof that there was a much wider world out there, hidden beneath the waves, one that Karkat had graciously been invited to be a part of. It made him feel special, chosen, and closer to Dave. 

He developed the habit of touching the mark whoever he thought of the siren, which was often. John noticed and teased him about having a hickey he didn’t want everyone else to see. He kept his shirt on around Porrim until the mark finished coming in. He’d find some way to explain it to her later. 

Every afternoon he checked the computer in the study in case Sollux had messaged him during the day. The guy had been pretty radio silent for the past few days, which was normal and worrying. Sollux quickly became obsessed when working on new or frustrating projects, and he probably wouldn’t answer Karkat back until he found something worthwhile to share. 

Which was why Karkat was surprised to see a single line of yellow text from his friend when he checked his inbox. Sollux was rarely so succinct with his words, and Karkat felt his heart drop when he opened the message to read what it said. 

twinArmageddons (TA) is an active chum!

TA: 2o… 2iren2, huh? karkat ii am going two beat your fuckiing a22 if thii2 ii2 real.

That was from hours ago. There was another more recent message. Karkat forced himself to click on it. 

TA: holy fuck  
TA: 2iren2. you’ve got two be kiiddiing me. fuck  
TA: fuck!

twinArmageddons (TA) is an idle chum!

twinArmageddons (TA) is an active chum!

TA: nevermind ok mental breakdown over  
TA: we need two fuckiing talk get your a22 online NOW

Sollux’s icon was still lit up in the corner of the screen. He was still online, so Karkat sighed and set his fingers to the keyboard, knowing the shitstorm that was coming and dreading it. 

carcinoGeneticist (CG) is an active chum!

CG: BEFORE YOU FREAK THE FUCK OUT JUST KNOW THAT I MADE A PROMISE TO KEEP THIS A SECRET UNTIL YOU FIGURED IT OUT ON YOUR OWN. I WOULD HAVE TOLD YOU IF I COULD, YOU KNOW THAT. I DON’T LIKE KEEPING THINGS SECRET FROM YOU.

The reply was instantaneous. 

TA: kk ii literally do not care about that at all ii just need to know one thiing before my freak braiin fiinally collap2e2 iin on iit2elf.  
TA: 2iren2.  
TA: are they real?  
TA: and don’t you DARE bull2hiit me right now  
CG: WHAT DO YOU KNOW?  
TA: pretty much fuckiing everything by thii2 poiint—ii fiinii2hed hackiing them days ago. there’s just 2o much iinformatiion that iit took me a whiie to 2ort through iit all, but ii diid.  
TA: 2o here’s what ii know.  
TA: the megiidos are really just one person, one person wiith an entire fuckiing criimiinal empiire behiind them. they’re iinto iin2urance fraud2, money launderiing, drug2, human traffiickiing, you name iit. if it’2 a criime done at sea odds are iit’2 them.  
TA: 2o ii was here, liike a moron, wonderiing what the fuck you had done to get iinvolved wiith people like thii2, and all the 2udden ii 2tart heariing chatter about fuckiing mythical creature2.  
TA: would you liike two explaiin that kk? before ii lo2e my goddamn miind?  
CG: I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO SAY.  
TA: why don’t you 2tart wiith the truth?  
CG: OKAY, NO MORE FUCKING SECRETS.  
CG: HERE I GO.  
CG: IT’S A REALLY LONG STORY BUT THE MEAT OF THE MATTER IS THAT YES, SIRENS EXIST. SIRENS AS IN SCALED HALF-FISH PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDERWATER. IT SOUNDS ABSOLUTLY FUCKING INSANE BUT IT’S REAL I SWEAR.  
TA: ok ok ii have two iinterupt  
TA: dave’2 a 2iren isn’t he?  
CG: YES, I’M GLAD YOU COULD PUT YOUR TWO WORKING BRAINCELLS TOGETHER TO FIGURE OUT WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A FUCKING OBVIOUS FACT.  
CG: DAVE’S A SIREN. SO ARE HIS FAMILY. THERE’S FOUR OF THEM HERE AT HELLMURDER. EVERYONE ON THE ISLAND INCLUDING ME, JOHN, KANAYA, PORRIM, AND THE HARLEY-ENGLISHS KNOW ABOUT THEM. AND NOW SO DO YOU.  
CG: HOPEFULLY YOU UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF KEEPING THEIR EXISTANCE A COMPLETE SECRET, OKAY? NO ONE ELSE CAN KNOW. EVER.  
CG: SWEAR IT.  
TA: kk  
CG: I SAID SWEAR IT!  
TA: ii 2wear, je2u2.  
TA: no one would ever beleiive me anyway.  
TA: but thii2 ii2 off topiic. ii’m not iintere2ted iin calliing my local new2 2tatiion to 2pread the new2 and you’ve completely deraiiled my traiin of thought but ii have some bad new2.  
CG: OH GOD, WHAT IS IT?  
TA: why’d you a2k me to look into the flagged word2? what wa2 iit that turned you onto that iidea iin the fiir2t place?  
CG: OH MY GOD THE FLAGGED WORDS! I’VE BEEN USING THE WORD SIREN THIS WHOLE TIME!  
CG: I’M AN IDIOT. I’VE RUINED EVERYTHING.  
TA: kk 2hut up the word 2iiren ii2n’t flagged dumba22. that would be 2o 2tupiid iif iit wa2. don’t you know how many tiime2 2omeone mentiion2 that word a day? iit’2 iin2ane.  
CG: IT’S NOT?  
TA: no, iit’2 not, but your reactiion an2wer2 my que2tiion anyway.  
TA: how long have you known they were hunter2?  
CG: DAVE TOLD ME, BUT HE DIDN’T KNOW ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT THEM. NOT A NAME, NOT A REASON… NOTHING. ALL WE KNEW WAS THAT SOMEWHERE OUT THERE THEY EXISTED AND WERE KNOWN TO ATTACK SIRENS ON SIGHT.  
CG: AND I COULDN’T HELP BUT THINK THAT IT MADE NO SENSE. WITH WHAT LITTLE INFORMATION DAVE GAVE ME I FIGURED OUT THAT THERE HAD TO BE SOME KIND OF SYSTEM THEY WERE USING TO ACTUALLY LOCATE THESE OTHER SIRENS, BECAUSE THE OCEAN IS IMPOSSIBLY HUGE AND SIRENS ARE REALLY FUCKING GOOD AT STAYING HIDDEN.  
TA: 2o you thought they’d flagged certaiin word2 two make theiir job ea2iier?  
CG: I WASN’T WRONG, WAS I?  
TA: no. you had that part riight.  
CG: HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THEM?  
TA: they’re hiighly organiized. very miiliitant. a lot of them are ex-cons and actual fuckiing piirate2. they run gun2 and drug2 and do black market deal2, a22a22iinatiion2, all kiind2 of bad 2hiit. they murder people liike iit’2 ea2y.  
TA: but all of that 2hiit goes to fund theiir true purpo2e—kiilliing 2iiren2.  
TA: mo2t of what they do ii2 2pend time tracking down new lead2 all over the globe. ii’m iin theiir communiicatiion2 and have been lii2teniing two them for a few day2 now and all they talk about ii2 kiiliing 2iiren2.  
CG: DEAR GOD.  
TA: mo2t of the lead2 are bu2t2 thought. like 95% of them at lea2t.  
CG: WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER FIVE PERCENT?  
TA: …  
TA: ii’m only going two say thii2 once.  
TA: they are good at what they do.  
CG: JESUS.  
CG: HOLY SHIT SOLLUX THIS ISN’T GOOD. GLOBAL CRIMMINAL NETWORK? ARE YOU SURE? THEY CAN’T BE THAT LARGE OR WELL-CONNECTED THEY JUST CAN’T.  
TA: they are. from what ii can tell they have all the rea2our2e2 they need to fund theiIr huntiIng triip2.  
TA: …  
TA: they went after dave diidn’t they? 2ometiime iin the pa2t? that’s the hurt you were talkiing about, about hii2tory repeatiing iit2elf. they nearly got im.  
CG: THEY…  
CG: THEY KILLED HIS PARENTS, SOLLUX. BOTH OF THEM. DAVE AND HIS SIBLINGS MADE IT OUT ALIVE BUT ONLY BARELY. THEY GOT /LUCKY/.  
CG: I CAN’T STAND THE THOUGHT OF MEGIDO’S MEN FINDING OUT WHERE DAVE AND HIS FAMILY ARE AND I /KNOW/ THAT MEGIDO IS STILL LOOKING FOR THEM AND OTHERS, ANYONE THEY CAN FUCKING FIND TO KILL FOR REASONS I DON’T FUCKING KNOW AND WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND.  
TA: ii’m working on the a22umptiion that ba2ed on the fact that dave can apparently talk two you and you call hiim a friiend that 2iiren2 are on parr with human2?  
CG: YEAH. THEY MIGHT NOT BE HUMAN BUT THEY’RE STILL PEOPLE.  
CG: SHIT, I THINK ROSE IS SMARTER THAN ME. AS A MATTER OF FACT I’M CERTAIN SHE IS.  
TA: 2o thi2 ii2 murder. megiido ii2 commiitiing ma22 murder. al2o, ro2e?  
CG: DAVE’S SISTER.  
TA: oh yeah 2ibliing2 got iit.  
TA: there’2 four of them?  
CG: DAVE, ROSE, DIRK, AND ROXY. ALL SIBLINGS AROUND OUR AGE THOUGHT I THINK DIRK IS A YEAR OR TWO OLDER MAYBE.  
TA: ok bull2hiit that 2oud2 freakii2hly normal.  
CG: I KNOW THEY’RE ACTUALLY NOT THAT SPECIAL. KIND OF A LETDOWN REALLY.  
TA: well damn  
TA: and here ii thought there’d be magiic and 2hiit.  
CG: DON’T GET ME WRONG THERE’S STILL PLENTY OF THAT NOISE TO GO AROUND. MAGIC IS MOSTLY FUCKING STUPID SINGING BULLSHIT THAT THEY WON’T EVEN LET US IN ON.  
TA: waiit magic ii2 real?  
CG: NO SHIT SHERLOCK.  
TA: damn  
TA: fuck  
TA: that makes a few thiings make more 2en2e actually. ii wa2 wonderiing what megiido wa2 talkiing about when they mentioned 2iingiing.  
CG: SPEAKING OF THE HUNTERS, CAN YOU SHUT THEM DOWN? OR AT THE VERY LEAST MAKE LIFE DIFFICULT FOR THEM WITH YOUR HACKING? IT FUCKING PAINS ME TO KNOW THET THEY’RE OUT THERE DOING BAD SHIT AND I’M HELPLESS TO PREVENT IT BECAUSE I’M STILL FUCKING STUCK ON A GODDAMN ISLAND IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKOFFVILLE WITH A BUNCH OF HOOLIGANS, HEATHENS, AND PORRIM.  
TA: what about kanaya?  
CG: OKAY YEAH SHE’S NOT A HOOLIGAN OR A HEATHEN. MAYBE FLIGHTY BROAD WOULD FIT HER BETTER.  
TA: ouch you’re really worked up over thii2.  
CG: YEAH.  
CG: I WONDER WHY. IT’S NOT LIKE DAVE AND HIS FAMILY ARE BEING HUNTED DOWN BY MANIACS WITH GUNS OR ANYTHING.  
TA: calm down kk ii’m working on iit.  
TA: iit’2 not a2 2imple a2 2hutiing iit down from the iin2ide. ii only have a finger’2 griip iin theiir 2erver2 riight now. at best ii can lii2ten iin on conversatiion2 and see the general 2cheme of thiing2.  
TA: ii’ll let you know the iin2tant that change2 becau2e ii’ll keep working on iit but that’2 the be2t ii’ve got rn  
CG: THANK YOU SO MUCH SOLLUX. YOU DON’T KNOW HOW MUCH THIS MEANS TO ME.  
CG: AND IT FEELS SO GOOD TO FINALLY HAVE YOU IN THE KNOW. I /HATED/ KEEPING THINGS FROM YOU. IT MADE ME FEEL MORE DISGUSTING THAN USUAL.  
TA: ok. 2iiren2. magiic ii2 real. megiidos are huntiing them. ii’ll 2ee what ii can do two 2top that.  
TA: anythiing ii’m mii22iing?  
CG: NOT REALLY. THAT’S THE BASIC GHIST RIGHT THERE. IT GETS MORE COMPLICATED LATER I’M SURE BUT THAT’S THE SOLID BASICS.  
TA: ok. loggiing the fuck off before you can drop anythiing new on me two further 2hatter my poor overu2ed braiin.  
TA: night kk. Tell dave ii 2aid hii.

twinArmageddons (TA) has become an Idle chum!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Sollux is finally in the know and Karkat has a new tattoo
> 
> There's no way either of these things can be problematic, right?

**Author's Note:**

> As far as first chapters go this is slow build, but that's the point. Slow and steady wins the race ;)


End file.
